


Peter Goes Back

by Andarius



Category: werewolves - Fandom
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-25
Updated: 2019-03-12
Packaged: 2019-04-07 16:44:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 34
Words: 47,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14085216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andarius/pseuds/Andarius
Summary: Aneria is banking a few stories here that she doesn't think is ready to post. They are works in progress and as such chapters will be deleted or rewritten.This is being written when she has the time or is bored meaning updates could be months apart.No tags are used because she doesn't want it publicized until she's ready to post it on her board.If you do read this and have comments, we are always glad to see opinions or discussions about our ideas that we can't get out of our heads until we write them out.





	1. Present Day

**Author's Note:**

> PETER POV  
> Steter  
> werewolf Stiles  
> magic Stiles, magic Melissa  
> Soulmate AU

**2015**

_**Peter's POV** unless otherwise stated_

 

 

Scott and his pack don't know I escaped from Eichen House when they turned the power off to break out Lydia. I think Stiles sensed me watching them. He _**is**_ my soul mate. He just never told them.

The pack's fighting the Beast. It rips out Liam's throat and already tore apart Lydia. All that's left is Stiles and Scott. It shifts into human form and throws a spear at Scott. Stiles shoves him out of the way, but the spear hits him. Scott attacks it without even checking on Stiles.

I run to Stiles, break the spear so I can get him off the wall and pull him behind some crates. I smell wolfsbane in the wound meaning a bite can't save him. His heartbeat's erratic and his breathing is labored. He's dying. 

Stiles looks up at me and smiles as he coughs out "zombie-wolf? How ironic, I die in your arms."

I smile sadly at him as I clutch him to my chest. "Stiles, why did you refuse the bite when I offered it to you? You wouldn't be hurt like this if you had accepted me!" 

He takes a deep breath. "You were only focused on revenge at the time, and I didn't want my dad in danger. If I knew you could guarantee his safety, I would've accepted. I'd never take it from Scott. I can't trust him, and he doesn't listen to me. I would never follow Derek because he's not very effective. I always wondered what would've happened if it was me you bit that night, instead of Scott. If you could've been happy with me, instead of getting yourself killed for revenge."

I move his collar to the side and trace his birthmark that says 'You must be Stiles.'

 

He smiles at me. "They never figured out why I always defend you and won't let them kill you. The one person he'd murder is you, but he lets Deucalion and Gerard walk away." He scoffs.

I kiss his forehead and say "if I could do everything over, I'd bite you and not seek revenge. I should've seen you _**are**_ more important than everything."

Stiles gasps and visibly relaxes as I leech his pain. He whispers "do you mean it?"

"Yes, little one. I mean it. Every word!"

He pulls a folded, blood-stained piece of paper out of his shirt pocket and hands it to me. He says "take this. It's a time-travel spell to go back to the night you bit Scott. Three and a half hours before! I have the components next to the circle for casting it in my attic. I was going to use it tonight, but Scott interrupted me before I had time. Go! Cast the spell!"

I ask "Would there be two of me or just my old self with my new memories?"

He whispers "This body would go into the past and then both versions of you would disappear and combine into the past body with the memories of this version."

He clutches my wrist as he spasms in pain, which I quickly leech from him. "You'll be wherever you cast the spell in the body from 2011, scars and all. You'll be sane since your memories will be intact. Warning. It's a one-way trip."

He grabs my wrist in desperation with the last of his strength. "I have a file on Deaton in the front of my family book in my attic. He betrayed us all, so many times. Read it and act on it! Promise me you'll stop him before it's too late, don't let him win, _**and**_ stay with me the next time around?"

"I promise." I look at the paper, and it _**is**_ a time travel spell. I say "I'll focus on you, my anchor and my mate. I'll make you proud of me and stop him. I never trusted the bastard."

He says "I was never ashamed of you. I was disappointed I wasn't what you wanted. Killing Kate was more important than I was. I was jealous I lost you to that bitch."

I say "I always wanted you. I believed I couldn't have you. I've regretted Kate _**every**_ day since. Killing her didn't give me any satisfaction. Revenge was my anchor, so then I had nothing. Death was the only thing left after that. I'm sorry I ruined your life and your friend's."

Stiles' can barely breathe, he won't last much longer. He says "Peter, can I have my first kiss before I die?"

"Of course, little one." I pull him into the sweetest and tenderest kiss I can give him. As his heart stops, my tears finally fall. I close his eyes, kiss his forehead, and carry his body to his home. I lay him on his bed and go up to his attic to cast the spell. I hear the beast howl in triumph on my way. Scott's dead and the beast has won.  

I'm surprised by all of the magical herbs, books, and supplies in his attic. I find an old picture of him and his mom with Melissa, and see an ancient _**handwritten**_ grimoire with his mother's and his name in it.

His mother was a witch. He's not a spark. He's a witch! This time I'll have my mate. Making him happy will make me happy.

 

I open the grimoire and find the file on Deaton.  

 

 

It says Deaton persuaded Scott, Allison, and I to sacrifice ourselves to find the Nemeton after telling us he didn't know where it was. He carved the wooden runes on his herb bottles and the jar Talia's claws are in from the wood of the Nemeton, _**after**_ the fire. He knew all along!

The herbs in the ice bath I was drowned in weakened my body and mind enough for the Nogitsune to possess me.

Deaton's magic, not Jennifer's, crashed the Jeep. The open wound from the accident let the Nogitsune inside my body. Deaton released the Nogitsune out of the jar on the full moon that we found Cora.

The only sacrifice surrounded by mountain ash was Deaton. The police were searching for him and the hunters. Why use mountain ash unless _**he**_ staged the attempted sacrifice. He wanted Scott to be a True Alpha.

When Theo was trying to get me to be Void Stiles again, he told me Deaton introduced him to the dread doctors ten years ago.

Deaton was supplying wolfsbane to Argent before the fire. He worked for Gerard at the time Deucalion was blinded.

There is a picture of Deaton with Gerard and Anaya Calavera.

He could've warned Talia. Derek never told them about the tunnels, yet they knew. No one had any clue he was Talia's emissary. Maybe he wasn't, and it was another one of his tricks.

I angrily growl at Deaton's treachery.

He wanted Stiles possessed! I think the man needs to die from a heart attack. I see an old vial of Kanima venom on the shelf. It's old, so it will still be there in the past. Tracy killed her father by putting it in his IV. I bet if I inject it in his heart, it'll stop.

All of the ingredients are sitting next to the circle as Stiles said they would be. I follow the instructions for mixing the ingredients and setting up the spell.

It says the incantation works best if done at midnight when cast by someone that's not a Witch. I ponder, now why would he write that on the instructions? Did he know he was going to die and I would cast this?

I'll never know the answer. I sit in the middle of the circle and wait.

At the appointed hour, I cast the spell.

It feels like I'm being ripped apart for a minute, then I pass through something intensely cold, and then something soothingly warm. I don't realize I closed my eyes until I open them.


	2. Back in the Past

I don't realize I closed my eyes until I open them.

 

 

**JANUARY 9th, 2011**

  
I open my eyes to see I'm still in his attic, but it's changed. I can hear Stiles moving around in his room below me. He's monitoring a police radio.

I look over my shoulder into the old dusty mirror on the wall. I see my burns, and I'm naked. I shine my eyes and see Alpha red eyes. I'm an Alpha again, and _**no**_ one knows I'm awake. I smile evilly. 

  
I have the best alibi that gives me power and anonymity. I can seduce and protect Stiles while staying hidden. I focus on my reflection and all the scars except the ones on my face. I smile as I see my body heal. I want my mate to have a fantastic body to touch and desire. 

  
It's kind of hard to seduce a teenager when I'm a burned mess. That's not the kind of hot mess I want to be for my Little One. I want him to know I can protect him and if I can't defend myself, how can I protect him?

I think about what I need to change in this timeline to have my mate and make him happy while I protect him from the Argents. Hmmm. I probably should have thought of that before I cast the spell, but this was a spur of the moment thing.

  
Scott's still human. I can separate that vermin from my Mate and keep him from betraying and hurting Stiles. I don't want to share my precious mate with that idiotic pup!

  
I smile as I shift to my Alpha form. I see in the mirror it's not deformed by insanity. I forgot how glorious and freeing it is to switch to such a powerful body. I stretch while watching my muscles ripple in the mirror.

  
Stiles will appreciate this form. Oh, the naughty things I want to do his taut, lithe body. I sigh as I realize I have to wait a few weeks before I can finally teach my mate about sex. Damn! This train of thought is getting me hard. 

  
Maybe being hard will be to my advantage when I make my move to seduce him.

  
I look around for the Kanima venom and spot it half hidden on a shelf. I smile to myself as I move it with my claw, verifying to myself that it's the right bottle and that I can get it when I need it. I'll have to fetch it when I can do so without Stiles asking why.

 

Stiles no longer has a reason to refuse me, to deny _**us**_. I won't make the mistake of biting Scott _**or**_ hunting Kate this time. Stiles will be my anchor instead of revenge. I won't be celibate for the rest of my life, this time.

 

I silently descend from the attic to his room and carefully approach my young mate. The anticipation is like electricity. He'll be mine! All mine! No Scott to interfere or cock-block me.

  
I quietly open the door to his room. He senses me behind him as I enter his room. He spins to face me, but I'm already directly behind him.

  
I place my hand over his mouth, pick him up and pin him on his bed, under my hot and hard body. I ensure my half hard dick is lined up with his as I lean in to scent his neck.

  
He must sense a connection to me because I don't smell fear, only curiosity, and a little desire. I pin his wrist next to his head as I breathe in his scent. I test my theory by placing my fangs against his throat. He goes still and pants as I wait for his response.

  
I see that he's waiting to see what my actions will be, so I purr as I remove my fangs and lick along his pulse point, eliciting a shiver from his body.

  
I lift my head and look into his honey brown eyes. I growl out _ **"you must be Stiles."**_  

  
He immediately relaxes and goes limp in my grasps. Well, most of him does go limp. One part of him grows harder as he looks at me with wide eyes. I only smell curiosity and arousal. There is no trace of fear.

  
I look down and admire his naked torso and 'innocently' adjust my position which causes our hard dicks to rub together. He tries not to arch his back at the sensation and only half succeeds.

  
I wish he were completely naked, so I could run my hand down his shaft and pull out of him all the delicious moans and pleas that I've imagined him making for years.

  
He pants and finally says _**"how long have you been watching me, Wolfie?"**_ I shift to human. Since I'm naked, he sees my birthmark saying _'How long have you been watching me, Wolfie?'  
_

  
I release one of his hands to trace his birthmark _'you must be Stiles'_ as he tries to stifle a shudder and the sudden scent of his arousal.

 

He traces my mark with his finger.

 

I smile at how much he's enjoying my touch, so I lean down and lick his birthmark, and he _**does**_ moan and moves his hand into my hair.

 

I purr, smile, and say "you're my soul mate. Don't let my appearance startle you. I'm a werewolf, and I can heal these scars. If I do it all at once, the hunters will realize I'm no longer comatose from their attempt to burn me alive with the rest of my family. I'm Peter. Peter Hale."

  
I stroke his cheek gently as I say "Stiles Stilinski. I can turn you into a werewolf like me. You'll be superior in every way to the human you pretend to be. Let me give you the gift of lycanthropy. Let me protect you _**and**_ your dad. Let me love you the way you deserve to be loved, treat you the way you deserve to be worshiped."

  
He guardedly asks "you can guarantee my dad's safety? These hunters you mentioned, won't hunt dad or me if I accept?"

  
I love the way his mind locks onto things. "The evil Argents left a long time ago. These are different Argents. Allison isn't trained to kill, and the others believe I'm the last Hale werewolf, and I'm still comatose. Chris Argent mostly kills killers. I'll do everything in my power to keep you safe and protect you from them. Your first full moon, I'll need to help you with the change. After that, you'll be strong enough to shift whenever you wish."

  
I lean down and kiss him slowly and languidly. It takes him a second, but he returns my kiss and slowly slides his hands from my chest to my back and shoulders.

  
I turn the kiss deeper and more demanding and heated. I feel how hard he is now and I'm sure he can see and feel how hard I am. I devour his mouth and drop my tongue in to map out every centimeter.

  
We continue to kiss and make out until he needs to stop for air. He realizes that he's bent his knee and draped his leg over my leg.

 

He looks into my eyes and says "okay, I accept, but I won't be 16 until the 27th. I can't let you penetrate me until then, by law."

 


	3. Turning Stiles

**SUNDAY, January 9th, 2011**

 

 

He looks into my eyes and says "okay, I accept, but I won't be 16 until the 27th. I can't let you penetrate me until then, by law."  
  
I grind my hips, pressing my hard naked cock against his clothed one.  
  
He lets out a strangled moan and tries hard not to push his groin against mine. He halfway succeeds.  
  
He weakly pushes against my chest and says "No sex until after the 27th."  
  
I evilly smile as I say "there are so many ways that I can pleasure you without sex Little One. I'll try to be good and wait. I won't guarantee it though." I lean down and suck a hickey into the crease of his neck and shoulders.  
  
He moans and clutches at my shoulders as I suck and nip on his throat. When I finish, he's a moaning mess.  
  
He pants "Oh my god!"  
  
When he stops panting, he asks "I would rather wait and do such things when I'm old enough."  
  
I pout but nod.  
  
He asks "do you have books I can read about _**real**_ werewolves? My mom's books are from a witches viewpoint. I'm sure there are discrepancies."  
  
  
I smile and say "I have some family tomes you can read, especially on werewolf mating. I want to claim my precious mate as soon as I can. It'll ensure no other wolf lays a hand or paw on you. They can't touch what's mine!"  
  
He smiles and says "you're possessive!"  
  
I say "You like when I'm dominant, possessive and protective of you. I want you so badly it hurts. Only an Alpha can turn someone. Alphas have ruby red eyes. The others have warm golden eyes or cold blue. I have to bite your side. It'll hurt, but it's worth it. I'll be here to guide and train you. I won't abandon or betray you."  
  
He nods and says "okay. I understand."  
  
I kiss him deeply as a promise of what's to come. I work my way down his chest to his side, shift enough to turn him and carefully sink my fangs into his torso.  
  
He moans in pain. I leech what pain I can from him. I don't like him hurting in any way.  
  
I withdraw my teeth and lick the wound until it heals. Werewolf saliva speeds the healing of open wounds. Once it sealed shut, I kiss my way up to his mouth, which I plunder with abandon. I smile when his other knee raises up, and he spreads his legs further apart for me.

 

 

  
I lightly scratch his thigh with my human nails as he moans.  
  
He feels my naked, weeping, hard dick against his crotch. He tries to move back nervously, but I hold him still as I look into his eyes and say "I'm not going to deflower you _**yet**_. You _**are**_ arousing. Yes, I'm hard for you, but I _**can**_ control myself. You're safe from me, for _**now**_. I've worked hard to have you, and I won't waste this chance. I won't risk losing you for one night of sex when waiting a few weeks will give you to me, forever. What's today's date?"  
  
He breathes deeply and says "January 9th."  
  
I smile at him say "the full moon is on the 19th and your birthday is on the 27th. You were born on the Wolf Moon?"  
  
He nods and says "yes. My mom took Wolf Moon and howl, translated them into her native Polish, squished them together and gave me that for a first name. You can see why I go by Stiles?"  
  
I say "Wilkksiezycawyc is a unique name for a unique boy. My Little One."  
  
He smiles and nervously asks "you speak Polish?" When I nod, he says in Polish "I miss being able to speak Polish. Mom died eight years ago."  
  
I smile fondly at him and say in Polish "you can always talk to me in Polish whenever you wish. The next Wolf Moon is in ten days. I should have you caught up on werewolf customs, histories, and rituals by your birthday. I _ **will**_ claim you _**on**_ your birthday! The thought of anyone touching you disturbs me."  
  
His heart speeds up, and I smell his arousal, so I kiss him deeply to tease him. "Can you get me a cell phone so you can contact me if you need me?"  
  
He nods.  
  
I say "Magnificent. Let's see how far the transformation has progressed." I shine my Alpha eyes at him and concentrate on his eyes, and they glow a beautifully, luminescent, honey gold. "Excellent! You're further along than I anticipated. Must be your witch blood."

 

I give him a pouting look and say "I have to return to the hospital before they miss me. Use your dad and me as anchors to control your shifting. Think of us when you get agitated and feel a shift coming on. It'll help you manage it and push it back down."

I stand up and see him looking at my body. I put my hand on his throat and pull him into my arms for another deep kiss.  
  
He tentatively touches my stomach and my shaft. I moan and say "careful, Little One. Feeling my shaft when I'm already hard and aroused makes it difficult not to take you now, no matter how young you are."

 

He blushes and mumbles "sorry."  
  
I say "no reason to apologize or be ashamed. I'm naked and aroused from kissing you. You're half-naked and smell aroused. You tempt me, and I enjoy your touch. I'll see you tomorrow night. Stay out of the preserve alone! It's swarming with hunters and cops right now."

  
I shift, jump out the window, and run to the preserve. Nurse Jennifer is expecting me to come from the preserve. She doesn't know I'm an Alpha. She thinks I'm a burned wolf controlling a human body. There may be some merit in Stiles assumption that she works for Gerard and I was his plan A for becoming an Alpha.

 

I sigh in satisfaction. I'm already an Alpha, and I have a small pack! Won't the bitch be surprised? I no longer need or want her.  


	4. First Day

**MONDAY, January 10th**  
**late night**

 

I climb in through Stiles' window and see him sitting in the chair, deep in thought.  
  
He looks up at me and shines his golden eyes as I flash my red eyes at him. He bares his neck with a little submissive whine toward me, his Alpha.  
  
I smile contentedly at his submission.

  
I walk over to him, place my hand on his throat and lead him to stand and come into my arms where I can scent mark his neck and stroke his back, putting my scent on him.  


He purrs contentedly.

I kiss him deeply and release him.  


He watches me intently as I climb on his bed, lean against the headboard and signal for him to lay on my chest so I can cuddle him.

He climbs up the bed and into my arms as he tucks his head under my chin, resting his hand on my chest.

I curl my hand possessively around his head, and ask "how was your first day as a werewolf, Little One? I'm sure you took to it as a fish takes to water. You were made to be a wolf, a glorious wolf."

He looks up at me with a half-smile and says "Allison Argent's now in my English class. _**My**_ best friend Scott's _**her**_ soul mate. I heard her outside class talking to her mom on the phone about forgetting a pen, so I told Scott to give her his spare. He _**forgot**_ all about _**me**_ for the rest of the day." He sighs dejectedly.  


I smell his sadness and pull him closer to my chest. I _**hate**_ that Scott is still making him feel worthless. When I kiss his forehead I can sense something else is bothering him. I card my fingers through his hair as I wait for him to tell me what it is.  


He arches into my touch and purrs like a kitty. I nip at his ear to calm him and ask "what's bothering you, Little One? Is there someone I need to kill for you, My Mate?"  


He shudders, and I smell nervousness and anxiety. "Relax, I'm only joking."  


Stiles indignantly says " _ **No!**_ No, you're not! You'd kill someone if they were a threat to me, wouldn't you?"  


I smile fondly at him and stroke his hair soothingly. "Yes, Little One. I would. How did you know I lied?"  


He looks at me like I should already know the answer to that. "Your heart skipped."  


I smile that he's already figured that out. I do get the feeling that he's not telling me something though. I smooth his hair and tenderly whisper in his ear "what's bothering my precious mate?"  


He sighs and sadly says "Scott's too busy with Allison to notice me and I'm afraid I might hurt someone on the team or draw attention to us, so I quit Lacrosse. I hated it anyways! I only joined for Scott. Peter? You're in the long-term care wing of the hospital, right?"  


I blink in confusion by his sudden conversation shift and say cautiously "Yes, I am.  Why do you ask?"  


He timidly continues "Scott's mom is a nurse, and she's like _**my**_ mom. I want to get an after-school job there. It'll give me something to occupy my time, and I can be closer to you. I _**do**_ want to be a nurse eventually, so it'll help with my career choice. It'll also give me a reason to always have your scent on me."

 

I smile at how resourceful and intuitive he is. Even more, than I realized, when Scott's not holding him back. I knowingly say "Is that what you were deep in thought about when I came in?"  


He worriedly nods as he chews his lip as he looks down.

**** ~~~~

I smile at him, lift his chin and kiss him tenderly as I roll us over, so I'm between his legs and draped over his body. I rest my weight on my elbows on either side of his head. I suck a kiss on his neck, eliciting a shudder and a small moan.  


I look him in the eyes, slide my fingers over his cheek and say "You're brilliant and resourceful. That's a magnificent idea. If my thick-headed nephew shows up in town and smells me on you, you'll have a valid reason for it. I need to tell you a few things. I don't want to keep you in the dark about myself or my motives."  


I comb my fingers through his hair as I say "my wolf was controlling my body for months as I ran through the preserve every night. Nurse Jennifer calls me back to the hospital late at night with a dog whistle and the promise of a raw steak. She must have a hefty butcher's bill. She set up a deer with a werewolf Vendetta symbol to draw Laura, my niece, back to Beacon Hills, so I'd kill her and become the Alpha. Jennifer wants the bite but doesn't realize I'm already an Alpha. I'm playing comatose by day and as if my human side is still on vacation by night."   


 

He asks "why would she want _**you**_ to kill Laura and be an Alpha? I'm sure there are _**other**_ Alphas around, _**easier**_ to get to than Laura. _**Why**_ specifically was it Laura she wanted you to kill? _**How**_ did Nurse Jennifer know that a vendetta sign would bring her back and not some other werewolf?"  


I arch my eyebrow in surprise. I never thought of that. Why _**would**_ a spiral attract Laura? It shouldn't have brought her running unless she was afraid someone wanted revenge against her. The only thing that might need revenge is the fire. Dear God! Did she have something to do with it?  


I shake my head and say "I didn't think of that." I have a bad feeling where that train of thought leads.   


He scoffs at the dog whistle.

  
"I need to finish healing and having you as my pack helps. Typically it takes at least three to make a wolf pack, but you're a witch and my mate. If my grumpy nephew shows up, I can persuade him to join our pack. Being an Omega or lone wolf is _**not**_ safe."  


I slowly slide my finger up and down his pulse point, relaxing him. "Tomorrow night we'll run the preserve together, and I'll give you a couple of books to read, from my old house."  


I roll onto my side, and he smiles happily.  
  
Stiles kisses my neck, snuggles into my chest, as we lay there talking about favorite colors, music, books, movies, games and anything else that crosses his mind while getting to know each other. He falls asleep in my arms, and I lay there cradling him to my chest as he sleeps.  


It feels nice to have someone want to touch me, _**even**_ with these scars. In my past, Scott's pack hated and despised me. They made a point never to come in contact with me. I was a fool not to want this! My wolf and I are contentedly happy lying here like this. We aren't interested in revenge or hunting down Meyers, Larson, Reddick, or Unger. Kate was more of a threat when I chased her than if I ignored her.  


I carefully roll Stiles, so I'm spooning him and holding him tightly to me. I set the alarm on the phone he gave me for 3 hours and nap with my mate.  


When the alarm goes off, we sit up, and I kiss him deeply before moving to the window. Then we both hear the dog whistle, and I'm gone, _**with**_ the new phone.


	5. Nurse's Aide Stiles

**Tuesday, January 11th**  

I feel when Stiles walks into the hospital to work his new after-school job.

 

Melissa McCall explains to him about feeding the patients, and he's assigned me, old Mrs. Hancock next door, and Mr. Blackard two doors down. 

He feeds _**them**_ first and then brings me a tray. It smells like steak but looks like mush, and I arch my eyebrow at him. He moves his hand over the plate and reveals it _**is**_ a medium rare steak, just like my wolf loves, but he hid it with an illusion.

 

We listen for anyone coming down the hall as Stiles hands me my plate, and I _**wolf**_ it down in a very undignified manner.

It's been such a _**long**_ time since I had steak, even longer since I had a _**good**_ steak like this!

I lick my fingers to get every last drop of the magnificent meal. Who knew getting such a delicious meal would turn me on?

I practically purr as I  say "My God! That was excellent! Did you cook this?"

He nods shyly. We hear Jennifer coming, and I go back to playing comatose, as he cleans my face with the rag. 

When she walks in, Jennifer haughtily asks "What're you doing in here?" 

He continues to wipe my face without looking at her and in a bored voice says "my job! I'm feeding the patients." His face goes blank, his eyes go white, and when they revert to normal, he smirks mischievously. 

She smirks nastily and says "I can give you a more fitting job for a kid with no skills and that's stupid enough to be stuck with the comatose patients. I growl sub-vocally to where she can't hear it, but he can. He says "I already have my assignment, but you can talk to my boss about it."

Jennifer steps forward and says "I _**am**_ your boss and _**I'm**_ telling you to get your lousy, sorry ass _**out**_ of this room, and _**scrub**_ the floor in _**my**_ office!" as Melissa walks in behind her.

Melissa yells "Jennifer! That's no way to talk to our aides!"

Stiles smirks at me before schooling his face back into an offended look. He turns and looks at Melissa and says "Hi mom! I told her you already gave me my assignment, but she thinks I'm stupid and unskilled so I should scrub her floors."

He scratches his head and says "I'm pretty sure she's using your office and doesn't have an office of her own. Doesn't that make it your floors?" 

Jennifer goes white and asks in a small, shocked voice "mom?!"

Melissa's now standing between Jennifer and me. She turns her back to Jennifer, looks at Stiles and flashes white eyes at him.

I smell her profound anger as he nods to show he's serious.

Melissa pats Stiles' shoulder and says "Okay, baby. Take the dirty trays to the kitchen _**while**_ I have a _**little**_ talk with Jennifer." She says the name Jennifer like it's the vilest thing imaginable.

Jennifer goes even whiter and takes a step back but is too terrified to run out the door.

He sweetly smiles at Melissa, rocks back on his heels, and says "okay, mom." He takes the plate, puts it on the cart with the others, and leaves.

I'm sure he's listening to Melissa tell off Jennifer. She sternly says "never speak to my _**boy**_ like that again _**if**_ you plan on keeping _**your**_ job! I'm not letting _**you**_ use _**my**_ access codes anymore, and that's not _**your**_ office it's _**mine**_ , which I will lock from now on. You have _**24 hours**_ to get your computer access or else!"

Melissa continues to chastize Jennifer for another twenty minutes before letting her slink out. I never realized Melissa was a witch. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the bitch getting her ass handed to her. It was so hard not to smile like a shitfaced baboon.

 

An hour or so later Nurse Peterson came to shave me with Stiles. He says "Okay, I showed you how to shave the patients on Mr. Blackard. I want to see you try on Mr. Hale. If you do a good job, that can be your assignment every Tuesday and Friday." 

Stiles smiles at him and says in jest "as long as I don't have to shave Mrs. Hancock's legs." 

Peterson laughs and says "no, we don't do that."

He calmly and steadily shaves me and does an even better job than Peterson did.

He asks Stiles "are you sure you've never done this before?" 

Stiles blushes and says "my dad's the sheriff. Sometimes he doesn't have time to shave and eat, so we split it up. I shave him while he eats. I got superb at it."

Peterson is suitably impressed and says "okay kid, the job's yours. You told me you want to be a nurse when you get older. You're going to learn all about patient care from Melissa and me. You'll be working 4-9 Monday thru Friday and every other Saturday 1-9." 

Stiles nods happily and smiles.

Peterson continues "we bathe the patients every other night. Tonight you'll learn on Blackard and tomorrow you'll do Hale. Bath time is at 8, and then we put the patients to bed at a quarter to 9. It's 7:45, but we'll start on Blackard, so I have an extra 15 minutes to train you. Come on, kid." 

At 8:45 they come back, change me into clean pajamas and put me to bed, tuck me in and leave. I hear Peterson in the hall telling Stiles he did an excellent job today and he'll make a fantastic nurse. Stiles leaves the hospital, and I smell his happiness. I don't think I ever felt him this happy.

 

At shift change, Dr. Rex arrives and asks "how's it going, Peterson?"

He says "it's my Monday, so it's going. You missed some spectacular fireworks today, though, man!"

Rex asks "so spill. What happened?"

He looks around conspiratorially as he ensures no supervisors are about to catch him gossiping. We got a new aide. A kid after school that wants to be a nurse. Stiles Stilinksi."

Rex asks "Melissa's kid?"  
   
You can hear the smile in his voice. "Yeah! That's the one. He's pretty good too! Anyway, he was feeding Hale when Jennifer tried to pull her queen act on the newbie."  
   
Rex asks "tried? What happened?"  
   
Peterson says "Melissa walked in on her calling Stiles stupid because he was assigned comatose patients and that she wanted him to clean her floors. Melissa took offense to it and chewed her ass out. She also told her she can't use Melissa's office or codes anymore and she has 24 hours to get her computer access."  
   
Rex says "she should have sorted that out months ago. Jen's going to find out that when you're on Melissa's shitlist, no one will talk to you or help you."  
   
Peterson says "no one fucks with Stiles and gets away with it. She's even more protective of him than she is of her ex-husband's bastard that she took in."  
   
Rex says "shhh! No one's supposed to know that and never say it out loud. If the kid hears it and asks Melissa about it, she will have our heads!"  
   
Scott's not hers, and Stiles is? I'm confused. What am I missing? I'm in a hospital, and I should be able to check their birth certificates if I need to.

 

At 10 pm Jennifer comes into my room, looks me over and asks if I want to go for a run. I nod. She helps me sit up, strips my pajamas off, opens the window and reminds me she'll call me with the whistle at midnight.

I shift, jump out the window, and run to the preserve before running to my mate's house.


	6. Who is Melissa?

**Tuesday, January 11th**

I shift, jump out the window, and run to the preserve before running to my mate's house.

  
  
I climb in through his window and find him finishing his homework. I tell him to take his time and get comfortable on his bed to watch him.

About 20 minutes later he puts away his books and moves to get in the bed with me.

  
I hold up my hand and say "take off your shirt first. I want to feel the warmth of your skin against mine."

  
Stiles removes his shirt, climbs on my chest and nuzzles my neck. I let him for a moment before pulling him up into a kiss, scent mark his neck, and stroke his back.

  
I flip us over, so I'm pinning him to the bed with my body and kiss him deeply and hungrily. I back off when I'm rock hard. I can't take the boy yet.

  
I'm sure he can feel my erection hard against his hip. I look into his eyes and say "Little One? Why did you call Melissa, mom? Is there something I should know?"

  
Stiles self consciously adjusts himself, spreading his legs wider without realizing it.

  
I smile, line up our erections, and roll my hips, grinding our groins together deliciously, eliciting a moan from the boy. He clutches my back and pants for a few minutes into my shoulder before he says "promise me, this stays between us."

  
I stroke his cheek as I say "of course, my Little One."

  
He says timidly "Melissa's my aunt, mom's big sister. Scott's not my cousin because she took in her ex-husband's illegitimate child from an affair with Melissa Brady, a teenager. Raphael didn't want her once she got pregnant. She killed herself after she gave birth. Melissa helped deliver Scott. He doesn't know! He can't know! It'll destroy him. He hates his dad and if he finds out Melissa isn't his real mom ..."

  
My eyes widen in surprise. I shush Stiles and send quiet comfort through our pack bond. I tilt his chin to look me in the eye and say "It's okay, Little One. Melissa's like a mom because she looks after you."

  
He nods tearfully.

  
"Okay, my Little One." I kiss him deeply, before changing the subject to relieve his stress. "I'm jealous you saw and touched another naked man."

  
He laughs and says "Mr. Blackard is like 100 and he's not you. You're my mate, and you have a much better body than he does. I don't know how I'm going to bathe you tomorrow without embarrassing myself with a hard-on."

  
I laugh and say "I don't know how I'll keep myself from having an erection from your touch as you stroke my skin to bathe me. It's going to be the most exquisite torture." As I kiss him, I dip my tongue into his mouth and thoroughly map it out until I smell his precum.

  
I back off and say "I think I could make you cum just by kissing you senseless."

  
He pants and says "possibly. You're the first person I ever kissed, and you're an excellent kisser."

  
I growl possessively, bend down and nip at his neck.

  
His hand glides down my side, across my hip and down to my hot throbbing shaft as we kiss. When I feel his fingers brush the head of my cock I growl, grab his hand, and pin it next to his head. I then bend down and clamp my human teeth on his throat.

  
He responds to me beautifully, baring his throat, moaning and arching his neck into my bite to give me more access. I bite harder and suck rougher as I mark the side of his neck with hickies.

I extend my fangs and press them into his neck, feeling them indent into his flesh. My jaw quivers as I struggle not to sink them into his throat and make him mine.

  
He whines when I lift away from his neck and shudders as I reposition my hard member on top of his groin. I look at the marks I left on his neck. I'm an Alpha so it will take at least an hour before they fade away. I lick them in eager anticipation of when I can do more. I see his eyes are a little unfocused and glassy.

  
I kiss his wrist before I plunder his mouth to get his attention back to my body and not my fangs and his submission. I stroke my knuckle over his cheek to get him to look in my eyes. Golden eyes to red eyes.

  
"Little One. It's not a good idea to tempt me like that. You have no idea how difficult it was to stop and not claim you just now. I want you as my mate, forever. In my heart, arms, and bed."

  
I sigh as I stroke a hand along my length to relieve a little of the pressure.

  
I  kiss his lips softly. "You're underage, and your dad is the Sheriff. I don't want to give him a reason to shoot me with wolfsbane. You can touch any part of me you wish, but when my cock is rock hard, I would suggest you don't feel it because I could lose control."

I take a deep breath, and my red eyes look at his beautiful golden eyes as I whisper "you're breath-taking and respond beautifully to my touch. The perfect submissive mate for me, your dominant Alpha. I can't wait until I can have my way with you. I want to see how deeply I can bury my shaft inside you and how many times I can cum inside you before you beg me to let you cum."

He moans and whines as he clutches my shoulders tightly. He gasps out "I want you to take me. I wish that law wasn't there about having to be 16."

I smile that he wants me as much as I want him, if not more so. "Not yet, Little One. I will take you on your birthday, right before I suck your sweet cock." I emphasize this by squeezing his cock, making the boy arch his back and moan.

He blushes in embarrassment.

I nip at his jaw and say "there's no reason to be embarrassed. We're mates. If only you could see all the things that I want to do to your delicious body. I'll get you comfortable with your own body, and with mine, in time."

  
He mutters "I'm not so sure of that. I don't like my body that much."

  
I lightly stroke his taut abs. "It's a stunning body, Little One." I get up and watch as he tries not to watch my body and my hard dick bobbing against my stomach.

  
He sees I notice and blushes crimson.

  
I innocently ask "Does my body please you?"

  
He nods emphatically.

  
I lightly stroke a hand over the scars on my face. "Even with these scars?"

  
He says "I don't notice them. They are on you, but they don't define who you are. You're handsome and well built with nice definition. You also have the biggest dick I've ever seen. I'm not sure all of that will fit inside me, but I _**want**_ you to try."

  
I smile as I remember my jealous rage when I discovered Stiles was going to have sex with that Heather girl. The one time I was glad Jennifer the Darach sacrificed an innocent. An innocent, that wanted to take my Stiles' virginity, from me. Um, from him.

  
My young virgin mate is already letting me kiss him. He didn't allow me to do that in the other timeline. He was too afraid that Scott would figure out he's my mate.


	7. Derek?

**Tuesday, January 11th**

  
  
I smile, extend my hand to him, pull him from the bed and into my tight embrace.

  
I kiss him deeply and thoroughly. "You sorely tempt me, Little One. I want to take you now, but I _**have**_ to wait another 16 days. I'm already planning all the things I'm going to do to you. How many times I'm going to make you cum. When I claim you, I have to bite you as we climax. I'm trying to decide where on your beautiful throat I'll sink my fangs and leave my mark for everyone to see. How deeply to penetrate with my fangs and my dick. How many times I'll mate you that first night."  
  
  
As my hand strokes against the redness of the hickies on his overstimulated throat, he shudders against me. I smell a fresh wave of arousal and his precum. Wonder if he can cum just from me talking about the things I want to do to him. Nice to know how much my words affect him.

  
I stroke his throat as I watch the last of the marks heal. "Come, we're going running in the preserve, stay close to me."

  
We run through the preserve, I in my Alpha form and Stiles in his beta. We're playing chase, and I encourage him to track me by my scent and his infrared vision.

  
He's doing amazingly well tracking me and finding me. He's ungodly fast as well. He's got to be three or four times faster than he was as a human. He's as fast or faster than I am. I use every trick in the book to hide from him. 

  
I suddenly hear a thud behind me, then growling and snarling. _**Stiles?!**_ It can't be hunters?!  


I run back to my Stiles, _**my mate!**_

  
I round a boulder and find him fighting Derek and kicking his ass. In the other timeline, the only time Derek won a fight was against Scott. Scott was freshly bitten and nearly an Omega at the time.

  
My eyes narrow in anger that he attacked my mate. I have to wait until there's enough space to separate them without hurting my mate.

  
I wait until Stiles gets the advantage and slams Derek bodily into a tree. I run between them, still in my Alpha form, and pull Stiles behind me as I roar in Derek's face in absolute rage.  
  
  
Derek drops to the ground, and half covers himself as he lays there cowering in fear and submission. I think he just realized that he made a grave mistake.

Stiles puts his hand on my side as he catches his breath from the fight. He nuzzles his head against my shoulder and whines at my anger.

  
I turn and sniff him, ensuring he's unharmed and letting him know that my anger is not focused on him. He's innocent of my ire.

  
I turn back to the curious Derek that's still lying there submissively as he watches how I treat my mate. I arch my brow. Can he reason and deduce his actions without being told by someone like Scott or Laura or even Stiles? He's not as stupid or blind to his instincts as I thought he was. This could be promising.

  
I feel my mate's hand on my arm and remember that Derek pissed me off by touching what's mine without my permission. I yell at Derek with my Alpha-voice "how dare _**you**_ attack _**my**_ mate! He's _**mine** **!** _ My _**mate!**_ My _**beta!"**_  
  
  
He whines "I wasn't going to hurt him. I swear! I was only trying to find out who _**you**_ are! I wanted to see if you killed my sister and cut her in half."  
  
  
Stiles leans against my side as he quietly says "you must be Derek? My Alpha has told me about you. I think he a _**little**_ possessive and protective of me."

  
I scoff as I stroke my hand through Stiles' hair possessively as I clutch him to my side. "I'm beyond a little possessive, my Little One. I'm _**very**_ possessive."

  
Derek looks confused we know his name. "What? Wait! You know who I am? Who are you? Do I know you?"  
  
I shift to human, a very naked human.

Derek sees it's me and his jaw drops in shock. "Uncle Peter? You're an Alpha?! You killed Laura! She was your niece! Why?"  
  
I say "My wolf was controlling my body and we haven't seen or smelled either of you in six years. You left me here as an Omega! I never smelled her as an Alpha! I wouldn't have killed her if I recognized her."  
  
I hear my Stiles muse "that's odd. My mom's books on werewolves say a lycan family is closer than your average wolf pack and they never abandon each other, under any circumstances. Why would she leave you an Omega? Why would she leave you at all? You need the pack to heal. She had to know that if she left you here, alone, that you wouldn't heal."  
  
Again, I never thought about that. I look at Stiles in shock and say "that _**is**_ very suspicious, my Little One."  
  
Stiles looks at both of us, but I can see that he's still lost in thought as he's thinking things through and trying to plan something. I know from experience not to disturb him until he's ready to tell you what he's found.

 

He suddenly focuses his eyes on Derek and asks "do you both have her scent?"  
  
I slowly nod as I try to deduce where he is going with this.

  
Derek haughtily says "of course I do! She's my sister."  
  
He nods his head decisively and says "Follow me. I have an idea how to find out what she was doing here. I mean, why would a revenge symbol bring her here unless she was guilty of something."  
  
Derek looks just as shocked by that train of thought as I am.  
  
Stiles leads the way to some seedy looking hotels near the edge of town. There are four on the same block. He says "females need a working shower and people don't ask questions in this section of the city, for the right price. Can you find her scent and her hotel room? There must be something there that'll tell us what's going on."  
  
  
  
Derek and I slowly circle the hotels with Stiles following close behind us. 

  
We finally catch her scent at the third hotel we investigate. It's been a few days since she was here but we can still smell her.

  
Derek goes into the office, says he's supposed to meet his sister, pays her outstanding bill, and gets the spare key from the owner.

 


	8. Laura's Place

**Tuesday, January 11th**

Derek walks out of the office and goes to her room. We follow in the shadows, so the guy watching from the office window doesn't see us.  
  
Once we get inside, we snoop around. Stiles finds a small box between the mattress and the frame.

  
Derek opens it and sees it's a small picture album of Laura with Kate Argent. They look too close to be anything other than lovers.

  
I find her laptop, but it's password protected. "Derek? What's the password for this?"  
  
He looks constipated and confused. He shakes his head and says "I don't know! Laura put the password on it to keep _**me**_ out of it."  
  
Stiles looks thoughtful and says "let me see it. I might be able to reset the password, _**if**_ I can get into the admin account."

He takes the computer, and I watch him as he resets the password to Iforgotmypassword and opens the laptop. He then hands it back to me.

  
I proudly smile at my mate as I say "you hacked her computer, in 5 minutes flat! You have a lot of valuable skills."  
  
He shyly smiles as he blushes. "Resetting the password isn't the same as hacking, but it works."

  
We see Laura and Kate are mates and they planned the fire so Laura could be rid of her family _**and**_ be the Alpha without having to wait another 20-30 years.  
  
I growl "the bitch! Here I was, feeling remorse for killing her, and _**she**_ was here to kill me _**after**_ she killed most of my family years ago."  
  
Stiles tries to hide a little whine. I scared him and made him nervous, but he's hiding it.

Wait. Stiles is hiding his emotions so well that I can't smell or even feel them. How is that possible? I think back and realize that he's always able to hide how he feels. I rarely pick up his emotions. Another mystery for later.  
  
I sit slowly on the bed, place my head in my hands in grief and frustration. Stiles leans against my back, and Derek leans against my side with a small whine. I sigh sadly and say "Derek? Stiles here is my mate. Join us. Join our little pack. Don't be an Omega any longer."  
  
Derek thinks a minute and looks pointedly at the album and computer. He finally looks at me and says "Okay Peter. You said he's your mate. You haven't claimed him yet?"  
  
I smile and say "I'm waiting till he turns 16, on the 27th. It's against the law to have sex with a minor, even your mate. He's taken a job at the hospital, as a health tech to be near me."  
  
Derek says "I take it hunters cut Laura in half after you accidentally killed her?"  
  
I sigh sadly and respond flatly "Yes."  
  
Stiles says "The cops are talking about curfews soon, unless they find the rest of her body. Let them find it. They may hunt for a wolf, but if there are no sightings, everything will go back to normal."  
  
I start mulling over plans to keep the three of us together and out of trouble. "Derek? You paid for her room. Tomorrow morning, I want you to ask the front desk when the last time they saw Laura was, call the cops and report her missing. That keeps you clear of suspicion and lets them identify her body."

  
  
He nods and looks a little guilty. Stiles picks up on it and asks "Derek? Tell me you aren't living in your old house?"  
  
He gives an even guiltier look.  
  
Stiles flails and says "You are?! You need to find an apartment with security gates and cameras to keep the Argents away from you."  
  
He starts nervously and asks "Argents? Plural? More than one?"  
  
Stiles says "Allison Argent just transferred to my school and her mate _**was**_ my best friend. It seems I'm no longer important enough to be friends with him unless he wants something."  
  
I briefly smell the sadness coming from him before he buries it. I pull him into a tight embrace as I say "he's a fool to give up having such an intelligent, resourceful and loyal friend like you. That's his loss! You can be friends with Derek, _**right**_ Derek?!"  
  
Derek shakes himself and says "yes. I'd like to be friends with you. We need to build pack bonds between us. We can protect each other. You're an amazing fighter. Can you teach me those moves? I'm strong enough to protect you from any human. We can watch each other's back. I would like to be in a real pack again. With people that look out for each other. I miss having pack bonds and having friends."  
  
Stiles smiles happily and holds out his hand as he says "My name's Wilkksiezycawyc, but everyone calls me Stiles."  
  
Derek smiles and holds out his hand and says "I'm Derek. Is your name Polish? The name sounds familiar." They shake hands, and Derek slaps his back in camaraderie.

I say "it's Polish for Wolf Moon Howl because he was born on the wolf moon and his mother heard a howl during his birth."  
  
Stiles smirks and says "I thought you were a big mean sour wolf, but you're kind of like the grumpy kitty."  
  


Derek arches his brow in curiosity. "What's the grumpy kitty?"  
  
Stiles Googles it and shows Derek. He laughs. I hadn't heard his laugh since before Paige died. He says "that does look like me."  
  
Stiles says "those eyebrows of doom are a dead giveaway." He looks at me and then looks at Derek conspiratorially. "If you visit Peter every day at 5 pm, I can feed you some of my meals also. When was the last time you had a good homemade meal?"  
  
Derek shrugs and sadly says "before the fire."  
  
I smile as I snuffle at Stiles' neck possessively and say "he is the most excellent cook."  
  
Stiles nervously asks "Peter? Can I tell Melissa, in confidence, of course, that I'm a werewolf now, and you're my mate?"  
  
I think about it as he nearly panics. I take him into my embrace as I say "Yes. I believe it'd be helpful to have a witch as powerful as you and her on our side."  
  
Derek's eyes widen. "You're a Witch?"  
  
He nervously looks around and says in a terrified voice, "don't use the word Witch! _**He**_ thinks I'm a spark. We hide our magic! Scott's boss, Deaton, is a Druid. He was playing _**both**_ sides of the fence. Mom said he worked for an Alpha werewolf as _**their**_ emissary at the same time he sold wolfsbane to their enemies. Druids _**think**_ sparks are harmless and ignore them but a Witch they _**try**_ to kill or out." He's rambling in nervousness and fear.  
  
Derek says "we won't let him hurt you. We protect our pack."  
  
I say "Talia. My sister Talia _**was**_ the Alpha, and I'm betting the enemy was the Argents or _**hunters**_ in general. I always wondered where they got such large supplies of Wolfsbane and mountain ash."

  
Stiles is wringing his hands and is nervous about something. I can tell he wants to ask me something. Derek asks first. "Stiles? Is there something you want to ask or know about?"  
  
He nervously toes the ground and says "I had a hard time dealing with my mom's death _**and**_ Melissa's ex-husband. For a few years, I wandered the halls of the long-term care unit. I volunteered to read to the patients. I ... I saw you, Peter ... I was reading something, and your eyes glowed blue. It scared me, and I didn't go back because I thought I was going crazy."  
  
He tucks his head under my chin as I cuddle him to my chest in a warm embrace. "I don't want to upset you or offend you."  
  
I say "you want to know about my eyes?"  
  
Derek says "they weren't blue before the fire."  
  
Stiles nervously asks "about the fire? I saw the basement of your house about a month later. Now that I know you're a werewolf, I know how strong you feel about family, and I saw traces of mountain ash inside and out of the Hale House. Four teens found in the basement had their necks broken. Are your eyes blue because you broke their necks so they wouldn't burn to death?"  
  
Derek looks at me with gratitude and Stiles is shaking against me because he's afraid that he angered or hurt me. My anger isn't at him. It's against Kate and the death of those kids. Does he feel my anger? Or smell it?  
  
I card my fingers through his hair as I say "yes. I couldn't bear to see them die that way. There was no way to escape. Mountain ash was inside and out. I survived because my body continued to burn endlessly, but my wolf didn't let me die."  
  
Derek snuffles at my neck and whispers "thank you, uncle." I nod acknowledgment.  
  
I'm uncomfortable so change the subject. I look at Derek and ask "so what are you supposed to do tomorrow?"  
  
He says "go to the front desk and find out the last time they saw Laura. Go to the cops and report her missing. Find a safe and secure place to live here in town."  
  
Stiles says "the first thing the cops are going to do, is check out this hotel room. We better hide her laptop and anything else you don't want them to see. I can hide them with my magic supplies in the attic. Gran warded it about 70 years ago. Ordinary people can't find it or enter it. Derek, tell me your phone number, and I'll add it to my phone, and I'll text you Peter's number, so you'll have ours, and we can keep in contact."  
  
My eyes narrow. Stiles never said anything about that, but that _**would**_ explain why no one ever knew he was a witch. Humans didn't look, and supernatural didn't care. I can't believe how much I never noticed. I wasn't as smart as I thought I was. He just let me feel I was.  
  
I think about it for a few minutes. "Wait! Put the pictures and laptop back where we found them. Let the cops see the Hale Fire was arson and Laura conspired with Kate Argent. That might get them looking at the Argents for her killer. If Kate plans on coming here to kill me, it might be a good thing to have the _**cops**_ looking for _**her**_."  
  
Stiles runs his hand over the items, they glow light blue for a moment, and he puts them back where we found them.  
  
I ask "what did you do?"  
  
Stiles says "I used a spell to remove our fingerprints from the items so that her fingerprints are still there. If we wiped them down the cops would find it suspicious that her fingerprints aren't on her stuff."  
  
I smile and say "good thinking, little one."  
  
Derek laughs and says "I can imagine all of the things you get away with because of your magic."

He smiles conspiratorily.  
  
A few minutes later Stiles says "It had to be Kate's men that cut Laura in half. While the cops are investigating them, they'll leave us alone since you're obviously the victims. It doesn't say anything in there about Derek aside from Kate planned on drugging him and using his clothes to set the fire and throw suspicion at him if there are survivors."  
  
Derek says "okay. That does put them on the offensive, and they have to start covering their tracks."  
  
I say "I was taking Stiles to our house to get him a few books on werewolves from the secret library. I want to ensure at least one of the books he gets is on mating since I plan on claiming him on his birthday. It's getting close to midnight, and nurse Jennifer expects me back soon. Derek, can you do that for me and ensure he gets home, safely?"  
  
Derek nods and says "sure, no problem. I need to collect my gear from the house, so that kills two birds with one stone."  
  
Derek takes Stiles to the house, and I head to the hospital.


	9. Derek Talks to the Sheriff

**WEDNESDAY, Jan 12th**  
  
Jennifer checks on me during the day which is unusual. I play like the wolf can only control me at night and I'm a comatose patient until nightfall.

  
  
I'm waiting for meal time and another of _**MY**_ Stiles' heavenly meals. Impatiently, I might add.  
  
Stiles fed Blackard and Hancock already. He always gets me last, so he has more time for me to devour my meal.  
  
Derek arrives to see me and talks to me about looking for Laura but can't find her. We both pretend that I'm comatose and he's the dutiful nephew that was away for a few years.  
  
Stiles pushes in the meal cart and sets down my tray. He reveals it has two plates of grilled salmon instead of mush. He hands one to Derek.  
  
We positively devour it like starving _**WOLVES.**_ God! I'm making _**DOG**_ jokes about myself, at least Derek is included in it, even if he doesn't know it.  
  
  
  
Derek says "my God that's delicious!" as we lick our fingers clean. Stiles smiles happily, and I proudly smile that Derek recognizes _**MY**_ mate _ **IS**_ the best cook _**EVER!** _  
  
We hear someone coming, so I go back to playing comatose, and Derek pretends he's there to talk to his uncle that's more like his big brother.  
  
Sheriff Stilinski comes in as Stiles wipes my face and puts the tray in the cart.  
  
He says "Dad" and the Sheriff replies "son."  


He leaves to deal with the dishes as John turns to Derek and says "Derek. You filed a missing person's report on your sister this morning?"  
  
Derek brows knit together in worry as he says "yes. I did. Have you found something already?"  
  
John asks "when was the last time you saw her?"  
  
Derek thinks and says "last week. She flew to San Fransico from NYC on January 3rd."  
  
John says  "I have some bad news for you, son. On the 8th we found half of a girl in the preserve. This afternoon, hikers found the other half of her near a hiking trail, and we positively identified her as your sister."  
  
Derek turns pale on cue and heavily, sits down in shock. "She's dead? Who would kill her? She just got here. Why would she be cut in half? Who did this to my sister? Was it an accident or was she murdered? Well, it had to be murder, or her body parts would be in the same place. My God, who would do this to us? That leaves Peter as my only family." He squeezes my shoulder in concern.  
  
John studies him and asks "how old _**are**_ you son?"  
  
Derek looks up at him and says in confusion "twenty. Christmas day I turned 20." He's not sure why the Sheriff would ask him that.  
  
John asks in a concerned voice "where are you staying at? I found that you had a month by month lease and canceled it before coming here. You only had one bag for you sister. Your sister left with one bag. I take it you have been living out of a suitcase since the fire?"  
  


Derek sadly says "we were paranoid that whoever burned our family would hunt us down. When I found her hotel, I stayed in her room. I guess it's a crime scene now. Can I get my bag or should I buy new clothes?"

He drops his shoulder in grief and sighs heavily. "I was looking for a place to stay, all day, but it's limited when you're 20 with no references. We have plenty of experience of living in abandoned buildings, and I can do that until I find a place."  
  
John says "we have a spare room. You just met my son. You can stay with us until you find a place."  
  
Derek looks at him in surprise and a small trace of hope. "I'd appreciate that. If it's not too much trouble."  
  
John sadly says "It's no trouble at all. Vagrancy is a crime, and I'd be preventing a crime. I'm afraid I have some more bad news for you, though. When we searched the hotel room, we found her computer and a box of pictures, hidden. It appears she and her girlfriend are behind the fire that killed your family. I reopened the case. I now have evidence showing it to be arson."  
  
A shocked Derek says "My sister killed my family?! Why? I don't understand! _ **WHY?**_ There were little kids in that fire."  
  
John says "it looks like Kate (Derek makes his eyes go wide in shock when he hears the name Kate) convinced her your family wouldn't accept her and to get them out of the way. I looked up the original report, and the fire inspector filed it in four days."  
  
Derek says "Kate Silver was my French teacher. Is that the same Kate? They told me it was an electrical fire. An accident!"  
  
John says "It takes four weeks to complete an investigation and file the report. I find it suspicious that it was closed and filed in four days instead of four weeks. Even more suspicious is the fact that the inspector retired a month later. My deputy and I went to talk to the fire investigator, Meyers. He confessed to taking a bribe from Kate Argent and changing the report."  
  
Derek looks totally confused as he says "Argent? No, her name was Silver. She showed me her license."  
  
John says "Silver was Argent's alias. Argent is French for Silver, so she wasn't too far off on her real name. It appears the whole thing was staged to kill your family. It mentions Laura's lover slept with you when you were 15 so she could steal your clothes to set the fire. That's statutory rape and a felony because she was over 25. Can you make a statement about her sexually molesting you?"  
  
Derek says "she seduced me? I thought she loved me! They used me as a scapegoat!?! They made me believe it was my fault? I've felt guilty about it for years." He looks like he's trying not to cry. He's not acting.  
  
  
  
John squeezes his shoulder and says "It's okay, son. You were barely 15. Younger than my son is now. I think I'd lose it if that _**ever**_ happened to my kid. Come to the station, identify your sister and file a statement about the last time you saw her. Come back here, and Stiles can take you home with him. "  
  
Derek nervously says "Is there any way I only see her face? I _**can't**_ ... I _**don't**_ think that I can _**see**_ my sister in _**pieces**_!"  
  
John says "of course. I understand. Sit there and relax while I explain to Stiles. Oh, by the way. Stiles real name is Wilkksiezycawyc."  
  
Derek thoughtfully says "Wilkksiezycawyc? Why does that name sound familiar?"  
  
John says "because his grandfather and your grandmother were best friends in Poland. I think my wife said her father was an emissary for your family and they wanted her to be one also. She said someone named Janus took her position, and she got to be an ordinary housewife and mom to Stiles. Let me catch up with my son and let him know what's going on, and then we can go."  
  
After he walks out, I angrily say "she meant he was two-faced, not his name was Janus. Deaton took her position, the bastard! He didn't warn us Kate Argent was in town running around with you and buying wolfsbane. He could've saved us with a warning, but he didn't. I bet he had something to do with it."  
  
Derek goes pale. "You knew that I'm responsible for what Kate did to you, to us?"  
  
I angrily say "the bitch was your sister's mate and she _**still**_ fucked you! How many people do you know would let their soul mate fuck their sibling? I won't let anyone touch Stiles let alone have sex with him!  She even suggested it, to get a tighter hold on you. They set you up! You were an innocent bystander and didn't plan or set the fire. _**They did!**_ You're not to blame! If I'm not mad at you, then you can't blame yourself either. She seduced _**you!**_ You were barely **15!** She was what? **27**? Laura was **17**! Here comes the Sheriff."  
  
John walks in with Stiles and says "it's decided. You'll be staying with us. Stiles is the best cook you'll ever meet. He'll put some meat on your bones."  
  
Stiles shakes hands with Derek, and then Derek leaves with John. Melissa walks in and asks how Stiles is doing. He closes the door and says "Mom? I have some things to tell you. You might want to sit down."  



	10. Melissa's Talk

**WEDNESDAY, Jan 12th**

He waits for her to sit down and then he says "I met my mate. He's an Alpha werewolf. Now I'm a werewolf, and he's waiting until I turn 16 to claim me. _**OH!**_ It's Peter here, and he's playing comatose because hunters killed his family and tried to kill him, which is how he wound up here in the first place."

She shrewdly looks at me and says "Peter! If you ever hurt him, the pain of that fire will be nothing compared to the pain I cause you."

I bluntly say "Duly noted. I'll never hurt Stiles. I want to protect him."

She says "you'd better."

I explain to her what Nurse Jennifer is doing, what she wants, how I found Stiles scent in the preserve and followed him to his home. I'm mindful of what I don't want to say in front of him.

I say "The family of the hunter that did this is back in Beacon Hills. It's Kate's brother Chris, his wife (the Matriarch of their clan) and their daughter Allison Argent."

I take a deep breath and says "Allison is in the dark about her families bloody history and hasn't trained her yet. She's your son's mate and currently dating Scott. I don't intend on going anywhere near him. I hate to say it, but he's a little narcissistic, and too black and white to survive long as a werewolf. I need to talk to you more in depth tomorrow morning."

She laughs, ruffles his hair fondly and says "Scott is that, stubborn and pig-headed. I'll keep an eye on her. I don't want hunters going after Stiles. It was bad enough with what happened to his mom, my little sister. I can arrange to talk to you privately tomorrow."

I say in surprise and confusion "wait! I thought Claudia died of cancer. Brain cancer."

Stiles takes a step back, and I pull him into my chest protectively.

She sighs and says "I changed the records and made it look like that. A Druid poisoned her with a strange mixture of mistletoe, aconite, and hemlock. It made it seem like brain cancer was eating away her mind, but it was the poison." 

She looks at Stiles sadly and then back to me. "He says he knows the druid that did it and is trying to find the proof."

My eyes shine as I growl "that bastard!"

She looks at me concerned and says "you know who it is?"

I growl "Scott's boss! Alan Deaton. He was my sister's emissary, even though he was selling wolfsbane to the Argents at the same time. Deaton's sister is the emissary for the Alpha Pack as well as the school counselor at Stiles' school so they can keep an eye on him."

She asks "is Deaton a threat to Stiles?"

I tighten my hold on Stiles as he grips my arm nervously. I say "Deaton thinks he's a spark. Stiles has gone to a lot of trouble to make himself seem like a spark. He's a serious threat. I'll explain everything in the morning."

She says "My poor baby." She strokes his hair as she says "you were saying Deaton killed Claudia?"

He nervously nods.

She looks in Stiles' eyes and says "You're so damn intelligent, it's frightening."

She looks into my eyes and says "He's got the deductive mind of Sherlock Holmes with the witch blood. He figures out things years before anyone else does. He probably thinks he's protecting himself, and me, from the bastard."

I say "I'm starting to see he figures things out but doesn't say anything until he can definitively prove it. He says half-truths and is vague enough people assume he's saying something different. Like Obi-Wan Kenobi saying Vader killed Anakin when he _**was**_ Anakin, and by becoming Vader he killed the man he was as Anakin."

Stiles lets out a small happy laugh at the Star Wars reference. That was his favorite movies. I let him go as he goes to see to his patients.

She waits a minute before continuing and says "yes, he does do that. It typically takes people years to figure that out. How long were you watching him?

I truthfully say "I'm not sure how long because I wasn't always aware. I found out more, in the last few days, after Stiles accepted me, than I did the entire time I watched, marveled at his intelligence, and admired his instincts and resourcefulness. I keep finding out more about him that I had no clue of."

I continue with a small half smile "I thought I was the most intelligent person around. I'm seeing him from a different perspective and feel like an idiot. He's the real genius. He let me believe I was an Einstein while I was one of the three stooges. Even if it was Moe, I was still a stooge."

She laughs and says "that's the beauty of Stiles. Like Shrek says 'he has the many layers of an onion and you never know how many layers are under the layers you already discovered.'"

I laugh. Now I realize how stupid I was not to take such a treasure last time. There's no way I'm going to do anything to risk losing him this time. 

She walks out and resumes her duties.

I think I can trust her with the truth about me and she'll help me stop Deaton. I smile to myself as I think of all the ways we can kill him and save Stiles from the Nogitsune.

Is it my imagination or did I momentarily smell anger from Melissa when I thought about the Nogitsune possessing Stiles? Hmm. Theory. Books about Witch families say that each Witch has a different ability.

Can she read my mind? I remember Stiles dying in my arms. I look across the way to the nurse's station and see Melissa turn pale. She gets up and rushes down the hall to the room Stiles is in. She hugs him and asks "are you okay, honey?"

He looks at her in confusion and says "yeah mom. I'm fine."

She closes the door and asks "your mate, honey? Does the level of love you sense from him ... is it stronger than it should be if you recently met?"

He thinks and says "yeah. It is. A lot more. It's almost overwhelming sometimes."

She asks "could he have used one of your BIG spells?"

He thinks and says "yes, but if he did, then I was already dead when he did, or I'd feel some of the after-effects of that spell."  
  
She says "thanks, honey. That's all I needed to know." She pats his arm and goes back to the nurse's station.  
  
Hmm. I think Melissa's the telepath and Stiles is the empath. The big spell must be the Time Travel Spell. Hmm.

Stiles comes back at 8 pm and says "I suppose it's bath time for Peter."

Derek walks back in, in a gloomy mood, after identifying his sister's body.

Melissa looks up from her desk as he realizes it's bath time for the patients. She rushes into the room and says "oh no! Derek can bathe or pretend to wash him. I don't think it's appropriate for a fifteen-year-old boy to wash their naked mate yet."

Derek smiles knowingly. He loves Melissa's fire. He says "yeah, no problem."

Derek wheels me into the bathroom and closes the door. He turns his back while I take a bath, as if I need modesty. Hell, I'm the only naked werewolf when we go running. The perks of being an Alpha.

Melissa hands Derek clean pajamas for me.

I get dressed and in my chair.

He pushes me into the other room.

Stiles says he has some paperwork to do and he'll take Derek to his house afterward.

 

 

The Sheriff stops by to ensure Derek is going him with Stiles and says he'll bring his gear from the hotel to the house tonight, after work. Stiles can find him some of the Sheriff's old clothes to wear until then.

Derek goes home with Stiles after his shift. **** ~~~~

I count the minutes away as I wait until 10 pm, when it's safe to see my mate.

I wait for the usual time when Nurse Jenn comes to send me out into the preserve to run the night away.

 


	11. Stiles' Theories

**WEDNESDAY, Jan 12th**  
  
When I climb in Stiles window that night, I hear him asking Derek "so a _**mating**_ bond makes a tighter bond than pack bonds or family bonds? I guess the question I want to ask or what I want to know..."

He stalls by taking a deep breath so that he can think about how to phrase his question. "I'm _**our**_ Alpha's mate. He's the _**center**_ of our spider's web of pack bonding. Am I also in the center of the web? Will everyone in the pack feel what I'm feeling because of our mating bond? Or, is my connection just a closer, private bond only between him and I? Will our bond affect how the others see me in any way? Like if we have a disagreement and he gets mad at me, will everyone treat me the same way he does?" Is he worried that we would pick up his empathy?

  
Derek knits his brows together in confusion and says "wow! That's deep. Um, I believe it's a private link between the two of you. However, at the same time, you have your separate pack bonds with each of the other pack members. At the same time, your mate's the web's center. You're also in the center which does put you over the rest of us. I think. I don't think everyone would treat you the same way he does because we are different people and each person has a different level of relationship. I think. I don't really know."

He rakes his hand through his hair and says "I never really thought about it."  
  
I arch my brows at Derek trying to explain something on that deep of a level. I would never have thought he had the intelligence or the patience to try and explain concepts to anyone, let alone Stiles.

I laugh and say "that's almost it. I may be the king spider but it's more like _**everyone**_ has a ring they hold, and this ring has wires between _**all**_ of the other wolves in the pack. _**Each**_ bond is a _**different**_ material and thickness, like each member of a family, has a different _**level**_ of connection to each other. Our mating bond isn't just wire; it's a braided reinforced wire, thicker and _**stronger**_ than any other bond you'll ever have. The more we strengthen it, the thicker and stronger it becomes. So, basically, instead of cotton wire, it will eventually be steel and concrete. Unbreakable and tangible, but _**only**_ to us."  
  
  
  
Derek says _**"wow!"**_  
  
Stiles says "Peter? The book you and Derek lent me says a mating bond is formed after the _**dominant**_ bites the submissive. So _**hypothetically**_ speaking, my theory is, if Kate's a _**hunter**_ and Laura's a _**werewolf**_ , they _**never**_ formed the mating bond? They were Romeo and Juliet with a little Bonnie and Clyde thrown into the mix."  
  
I balk at that thought and say "you're right." I never thought about it before. "Derek would've noticed if there was suddenly a hunter mated to one of his pack. Kate's family would've seen if she suddenly had a werewolf bite on her. That _**does** _ mean they _**never**_ cemented their bond because _ **neither**_ one _**left**_ their family behind. Maybe that's half of why they killed our family." I ponder that for a moment. "For that plan to work they _**had**_ to make it look like werewolves kill the Argents."  
  
Stiles says "maybe they left you alive to get the Argents together, kill them, and frame you and Derek as werewolves out for revenge. Laura would go underground or change identities for that to work, though. _**Or**_ be the one to kill you as restitution for the Argents deaths. Make her the hero."  
  
I say "that sounds plausible and the most likely way they could be together without either family stopping them."  
  
Stiles says "The question I have is, Nurse Jennifer used a _**spiral**_ to get Laura back here so you could kill her. She must _**know**_ about the fire. _**How**_ does she know? _**Who**_ hired her? _**What's**_ her endgame? I mean, they specifically wanted Laura dead. They used you to do it."  
  
Stiles huffs and shakes his head as he runs his hand thru his hair in frustration. " _ **All**_ I can come up with is _**one**_ of Kate's hunter clan _**discovered**_ she's having sex with a _**werewolf**_ , their enemy. They figured out _**her** _ endgame, **and** decided to _**punish**_ her by _**killing**_ her lover."

  
  
Stiles is apparently deep in thought and not seeing us as he's figuring out his theory. "What I _**don't**_ understand, is why Jenn is so desperate for the _**bite**_? Unless someone's survival is at stake and she's their _**pawn**_? I know some animals will kill their children to prolong their survival, but _**who's**_ pulling her strings."  
  
He just gave me the perfect opening to throw Gerard in on this. I say "kill their children? That's it! Gerard. It sounds like something as convoluted as he'd do. A few months before the fire he tried to start a war with us. He killed _**his**_ hunters with a pike to make it look like werewolves. He blinded Deucalion with flash arrows to make him want revenge enough to start a war with us. Gerard's getting old, maybe he's dying and wants the bite to cure whatever sickness he has. Humans of his age get cancer. I bet that's what this is all about. His survival. Everything else is just a step on the path. He's the type that would be king. He'd kill the Alpha that bit him to be alpha."  
  
Derek says "I can tell you two are the _**perfect**_ mates. You're figuring this out by jumping from each other's reasoning and deductions. It's like watching Sherlock Holmes, but instead of Sherlock and Watson it's Sherlock and Sherlock."  
  
Stiles looks at him with slanted eyes and says "Mycroft Holmes. Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes. His brother was even more profound with his thinking than he was, only he had such an advanced thought process he couldn't figure out how to prove anything. So he never did anything. He was too sedentary."  
  
I say "I forgot about the brother. Mycroft was only in what? Four books? How high is your IQ? You're only 15, and I assume you read all of Sherlock Holmes?"  
  
He smiles and says "I'm almost 16 and I devoured everything Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote. I also read all of the Tarzan books. When I first started on them, I needed a dictionary, but I got better. When mom tested my IQ as a child, it was 196. I don't hold too much on IQ scores, though."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mycroft 


	12. I talk to Melissa

**THURSDAY, Jan 13th**  
  
Melissa comes to see me at 11 am. She closes the door behind her and says "I assume you waited until this morning to talk to me because Stiles is in school and you don't want him to know about whatever you have to say."

I have to remember that I suspect of her being a telepath and as such, she'll know if I lie. I have to tell her the truth. I want her to know I want Stiles protected and safe and I need Deaton dead for that to happen.  
  
I smile at her shrewdness and brashness. "You're right. I need your assistance. I used Stiles' time travel spell to come back to 2011, so I can change things and save everyone. The truth is, Stiles is the only one I _**need**_ to protect, but keeping the others alive pleases him. I want my mate safe _**and**_ happy."  
  
Melissa curtly nods as she sits on the bed. "Tell me about this future you escaped and what you're changing or have changed."  
  
I tell her "Stiles died in my arms and the Beast killed Scott minutes later. Originally, it was Scott I bit and turned into a werewolf when I was insane. We all regretted that decision. He was a terrible werewolf and hated it. Scott was always whining 'poor me' or 'you ruined my life' and never stopped to see that the things in his life that he valued he got because he was a werewolf. He continuously ignored and hurt Stiles because of his arrogance that a human could know something a wolf didn't."  
  
I tell her about the Kanima, the Darach, the Deadpool, the Alpha Pack, Theo, The Dread Doctors, and the Beast. Deaton knew _**everything**_ about all of them.  
  
She agrees with me. Deaton _**is**_ a threat to _**both**_ her boys. I tell her about the Kanima venom in Stiles' attic. She has a supply of her own. She'll give me an amulet to cloak myself in invisibility so no one, but pack, can see, smell, hear, or sense me and a vial of venom. Deaton needs to die to protect Stiles and Scott. She doesn't want to kill, but he _**murdered**_ her _**sister**_ and _**wants**_ to _**kill**_ her _**boys**_.

  
  
Melissa explains how a comatose human wakes up and how to mimic it. I have to slowly, start making small movements. It could take months. 

What about nurse Jennifer? Stiles and I believe she works for Gerard Argent. I don't think I have months before she figures out I'm awake.  
  
I tell Melissa about the drugs Jennifer keeps in the cabinet, and she molests male patients, late at night.

Melissa says "I'll arrange for her to be caught in the act and let the justice system and the families of her victims deal with her."

She paces the room as she thinks. "If Scott was like that as a werewolf he can't ever become one."  
  
I nod and agree with her wholeheartedly. "I think Deaton is trying to arrange for him to be one and set the circumstances to become a True Alpha that _**he**_ controls."

I _**need**_ Deaton dead _**before**_ he contacts the Alpha Pack. I'll take care of him tomorrow after Melissa gets me the supplies.  
  
We make plans for both of us to go tomorrow, during school hours, and use an illusion to make it look like both of us are in my room. We shouldn't be gone more than an hour.

  
**5 pm**  
Derek shows up to spend time with me. I do as Melissa suggests and make a small movement of my head to almost track his location. Stiles brings in ribs for both of us. _**We**_ devour them in _**wolfish**_ fashion.  
  
  
  
Melissa giggles at us as she comes in to ask Stiles how Scott's doing.  
  
Stiles frowns and says "Scott took Allison Argent to eat at McDonald's, to discuss their upcoming date, going to Lydia's party tomorrow night. No way am I going to that. I'm actually taking Danny to _The Jungle_ to help him get over a breakup. If I'm lucky, Danny will meet a new guy, and yes I know better than to accept a strange drink from a stranger."  
  
I growl and say "that's a gay pick up spot. How are you getting in at 15? I don't want you going there _**alone!**_ That place is not safe! There is no security there." 

I think of the Kanima attacking people there and Stiles was nearly attacked by it. Melissa and Stiles both stiffen up in nervousness. They both picked up something from that memory?  
  
Stiles looks nervous and upset. "Danny and I are good friends with the bartender. He looks out for us when we're there. A cross-dresser named Roxy also looks out for me, and she's a Harpy. I think I'll be safe. I'm not looking to meet or pick up anyone else. I'm a one person guy and have been saving everything for when I met you, my mate. I'm trying to help Danny. I'll be protected, it's not like there's any hunters there."

Melissa says "as long as Danny and you're friend keep an eye out for you and you're careful. I know you can spot trouble a mile away. I'm just worried about if someone doesn't take no for an answer."  
  
Derek gets protective of Stiles and says "I'll go with him. If this Harpy _**is**_ keeping an eye on him, as well as me, then he _**will**_ be safe."

  
  
I glare at him and ask Stiles "What time are you going?"  
  
He says "after 9:30, after I finish here and clean up."  
  
I smile and so does Melissa as I say "that's late enough for me to be there, watching from the background. Can you make a glamour to allow me to look like Harris? I don't mind giving the guy a bad rep since he's currently having sex with several of his minor students and he gave Kate the formula to burn the stones of our house."  
  
Stiles sadly shakes his head. "My illusions are fictional things. I can't make them look exactly like someone. There's always something off or wrong with them."

  
  
Melissa says "I can. My illusions are of real people and things. They are too perfect to be fake. That's why we work together so well. When we work together, we can do anything. I'll give you the illusion tomorrow night."  
  
Derek knits his brows together in confusion. "Witches have different skill sets?"  
  
Melissa says "yes. Stiles is our potion and spell master and uses them to mimic any ability or power out there. He's found the perfect combination of herbs for time travel. He can adjust them to pinpoint any point in time he existed in. That's the rule of time travel. You can only travel throughout your lifespan. The incantation is the hard part. It has to be worded to merge the mind you have now with the body you have then and set it to a given moment and location. It takes years to perfect each spell."  
  
Stiles says "after I realize something has gone wrong, I research all of the given possible timelines. I find when the exact moment that decision was made and then go back to before that to change it. I gave Melissa one to get her husband out of the picture before he killed Scott. I vaguely remember because I searched the time stream. I know we made a change, but I can't remember what the original line was." His heart blipped.  
  
I think all of this over. That means Stiles started making the spell years before the beast. When would he have decided on this? I think over all of our discussions, and I remember the parking garage. That was when I saw disappointment and resignation appear in his eyes. When I only wanted revenge, and he saw the body. I turned my back on him and ran to kill Kate.  
  
I'm so caught up in trying to remember that I don't notice Stiles talking to me. "I'm sorry, Little One. I was trying to remember something and got lost in thought. I didn't mean to ignore you. What did you say?"  
  
He sheepishly smiles at me as he says "I have to get these dishes to the kitchen and do my paperwork. I'll see you later tonight when you come over to show me how to track and hide from others in the forest."  
  
I smile at him, pull him into a hug and stroke his back, so my scent is on him. "You be careful. Derek, keep an eye out for him until I can."  
  
Derek nods. "I always protect my pack. I'll keep more than an eye out for him. I don't plan on losing anymore pack, family or friends to the Argents."  
  
Stiles leaves with the dishes, and I see a knowing look in Melissa's eye. She knows what I was pondering. Melissa purposely brought that up in front of Stiles.


	13. Investigations and Evidence

**THURSDAY, Jan 13th**  
**Late that Night**

  
I climb in through Stiles' window, draw him into a tight bear hug, and push him against the wall, where I kiss him senseless.

He clutches at my shoulders and pants as we catch our breath.

I scent mark his neck and stroke his back as I say "you have no idea how hard it was not touching you today. I wanted to hold and kiss you but didn't think Melissa would approve very much. She scares me."  
  
He laughs and says "she'd accept it more when you have clothes on than now, while you're naked. I'm not complaining in any way. The perks of being a werewolf in your pack."

I chuckle lightly as his hand momentarily lowers to my hip as he contemplates squeezing my ass.

We hear Derek call up the stairs "do I need to chaperone you two?"

  
  
I roll my eyes and say "nothing's going to happen while he's underage, but you're welcome to join us. We need to train Stiles more on shifting at will. He has incredible control already." I card my fingers through his hair fondly as I say "I can barely believe I just bit him on the 9th."  
  
Derek walks in and asks in a surprised voice "the 9th? I assumed from his incredible control that you turned him when Laura left at the earliest since only an Alpha can turn someone."  
  
I shake my head. "I killed Laura just before midnight on the 8th. I bit Stiles around 10 pm on the 9th."  
  
Derek says "Laura left on the 3rd. She flew here. What was she doing from the third until the 8th?"

  
  
Stiles says "Maybe she spent a couple of days with Kate and then came here to figure out if Peter was awake or not. Have you checked when she arrived and signed into the hotel?"  
  
We look at Stiles.

He nervously fidgets as he says "I heard dad ask Derek when the last time he saw her was."

He looks at Derek. "You said Laura flew out on the 3rd. I'm sure dad's investigating it, so I'll sneak a little peek at his files."  
  
We follow him to the kitchen where he finds a lock box in a hidden niche behind the kitchen door.  
  
  
  
Stiles moves his hand over the lock, and we hear a click. The box pops open, and he looks through the papers and finds a stack with a sticky note on it saying, Laura.  
  
He leafs through it and reads aloud "Derek made the statement he last saw Laura on the 3rd when she left for Beacon Hills. According to her laptop, she was supposed to email him on the 8th to say she was okay, but she never sent it. Laura's plane ticket shows a three-day layover in Louisiana. Police in Louisiana found she and the blonde woman _(Kate)_ stayed in a hotel together for three days before checking out. She arrived on the morning of the 8th."  
  
Stiles looks up at us as he says "that leaves the 7th unaccounted."  
  
He goes back to the reports and reads "Laura Hale purchased large quantities of monkshood on the 5th with the blonde woman. A package was delivered to Derek's apartment and signed for by the landlord on the 9th. See note on the back of the page."  
  
I say "monkshood is a type of wolfsbane. Both are aconite."  
  
Derek pales as he realizes his sister _**and**_ Kate tried to kill him.  
  
Stiles flips it over and reads "Fingerprints on the outside of the package belong to Laura, and inside belong to Kate Argent. Argent aka Silver always sterilizes her kills. The fact she left fingerprints in places not damaged by their bomb means she wants them found. I asked my son if his _RM_ friends what it means if they leave a set of prints when they sterilize their crimes. He says that proves they did the crime _(that would only be an assassination or murder. His friends don't do that)_ and someone in the force on the take kills the heat, or they make plans to wait out the cops."  
  
I arch my brows in confusion as I ask "what does RM means?"  
  
Stiles says "Russian Mafia. Mom immigrated to Beacon Hills with the help of the Russian Mafia." He smiles. "They taught me how to hotwire a car in less than 3 seconds."

He puffs up with pride, and I smile at his accomplishments.  
  
He flips back to where he was and finishes reading. "The landlord is in the hospital with acute aconite poisoning and singed hair from the bomb. It was from Laura, with no return address, but mailed in Louisiana, and it was set to a timer to go off at 5 pm on the 8th. That's the time Derek should've been emailing her. Lucky for him he didn't wait a day to check on her. He came straight to Beacon Hills when she didn't check in, which saved him. There is no indication that he's aware of the bomb or the landlord."  
  
I angrily say "she spent _**three**_ days shacked up with the _**bitch**_ and then sent a _**Wolfsbane**_ bomb to her _**brother**_ to _**kill**_ him. I _**no longer**_ feel bad about killing her! I want to resurrect the bitch so I _**can**_ kill her, _**knowing**_ full well what I'm _**doing**_." I'm furious! Both Stiles and Derek group hug me to help calm me down.

  
Stiles sees a stack on Derek, picks it up, and reads it aloud. "Derek said she left on the 3rd, and all evidence supports this. He told me she didn't check-in with him and all evidence supports this. She left instructions for him to stay in New York and wait 24 hours after she calls with an OK before looking for her. Evidence shows he panicked to have his uncle in a coma and his sister missing. Instead of waiting, he got the first available flight. Arrived in Beacon Hills at 10 am on the 9th. Took a cab to storage facility his dad's car was stored in and got it running. At 1:30 pm arrived at the hospital and asked if his sister had been there. He checked the visitors log and the status of his uncle, then left saying he needed to find his sister."  
  
Stiles continues "was identified checking the better hotels, hospitals and the morgue looking for her. He got an anonymous tip on the 10th saying she was in the preserve. He was seen heading there around 7 pm. He found her hotel around 10 pm that night. He paid her bill and next morning asked when they saw her last. Came to us asking for help finding his sister. We guaranteed we'd find her. He went to the hospital to spend time with Uncle. All evidence shows he's innocent and not connected."  
  
I think the anonymous tip was more than likely Deaton. "You're safe Derek. They know you're another victim."  
  
Stiles says "Laura's dead and not a threat to any of us anymore. I better put these back, so dad doesn't know I looked through his stuff."  
  
Derek scratches his head in nervousness or confusion and asks "how did you open it?"  
  
Stiles looks up at him as we hear the click of it locking again. "If I concentrate, I can use telekinesis. It takes focus, though. I can't do it when I panic, in pain, or rushed."  
  
We then teach Stiles how to shift on command and then take him to the preserve where we show him to hide his scent and to track us by scent.

After a couple of hours, I teach him to use our pack bonds to find us and how to pull on them to let us know to come to him. He takes to it so quickly we can barely tell that he was bitten and not born. He feels like he's been one of us for years and not days. We hear the whistle, and I thoroughly kiss Stiles good night.  
  
Derek says he'll ensure he gets home okay and take care of him.

I clap him on the shoulder and say "I don't know what I'd do without you."

He nods and smiles sheepishly.

I run back to the hospital and climb in the window.

Jennifer rinses off my feet and gets me back in my pajamas. She tries to stroke my shaft, and my wolf growls at her. She backs off and leaves the room.  
  
I listen to her walk down the hallway and get a supply of her drugs. That's odd. I heard an extra click when she opened the cabinet. I listen as she goes to Mr. Herman's room, fills a syringe and stealthily opens the door.

Hmm. That's odd. I hear another click when she opened it. Melissa must have put surveillance on the drugs and the patients she's molesting.

I hear her inject the drugs into Mr. Herman and then I listen to her stroking him into hardness and riding him.  
  
She then cleans up and goes to the nurse's station to do her paperwork.

I think Melissa put a camera on everything and the click was them activating. Jennifer will soon pay for her crimes. I smile evilly to myself as I envision the bitch in the electric chair.  
  



	14. Deaton

**FRIDAY, January 14th**

  
I calmly wait, as I think of all the things I want to do to Deaton. Melissa walks in as the orderlies leave with my lunch tray. She hands me an amulet that ensures only my pack can see and hear me. _**Or**_ anyone I'm touching.  
  
I watch as Melissa lays a coin in the chair by the window and activates a glamour showing her working on her laptop. She walks to my wheelchair and puts another that enables a glamour of me sitting there. She grabs my arm and tells me to put on the amulet.  
  
  
  
We then walk out the front door and get in a nondescript beater car and drive to Deaton's office. We park a block away so as not to attract attention.   
  
Once inside, I can't go through the half door into the back. Mountain ash. 

Melissa opens it, and we walk to the rear of the shop, where we see Deaton playing with an older iPhone. 

Melissa asks "why does he have Scott's phone?"

I wonder what the bastard is doing? He looks like he's waiting for something or someone.

We watch as Deaton walks to the front and turns the sign to closed. It's the middle of the day, not much past 1 pm, and he doesn't close shop until 6:30 pm. How very odd.  
  
Melissa pulls out two syringes of kanima venom and hands me one. 

As we approach him, I hear Stiles' Jeep drive up. I say "Wait! Stiles is here, and it sounds like he's in a panic."   
  
We step back and wait to see what's going on.  
  
Stiles runs in screaming for Scott. 

Deaton gestures to the back. 

When Stiles runs into the back, Deaton smiles evilly, and shuts the door, effectively trapping him.  
  
Stiles sees us hidden in our glamour and looks confused. He turns to Deaton, who is now blocking the door. "Where's Scott? I got a text that he's hurt, needs help, and is here alone."  
  
Deaton says "Scotts perfectly fine, unfortunately. That was me." 

Stiles notices Scott's phone and takes a step back.

Deaton picks up a jar of powder and tosses its contents at Stiles.   
  
Stiles wisely holds his breath until the powdered herb settles on the floor between them, with a slowly fading glow.  
  
Stiles growls _**"Star Anise."**_  
  
  
  
Deaton smiles. "The glow proves you changed the time flow, but it's not as bright as it should be. It wasn't recently. You _**had**_ to have something to do with it, though! I had _**everything**_ set up for an _**insane**_ Peter Hale to _**bite**_ Scott. My dreams _**verify**_ that should have happened, _**but**_ it didn't. I ensured you brought him to the preserve so Peter _**would**_ turn him."   
  
He shakes his head and grabs another jar before saying "that never happened! Peter's not even interested in Scott, _**or**_ a pack! He should _**need**_ a wolf pack, _**desperately!**_ His instincts should be _**screaming**_ for a pack! I ensured it!" He angrily growls "he _**only**_ wants _**you!**_ "   
  
Stiles says "He's my mate."  
  
He points angrily at Stiles and says "That shouldn't matter! I did everything to fixate him on _**revenge!**_ He should be isolated from any pack bonds and insane! _**You,**_ somehow, ruined all my plans! _**This**_ is the _**last**_ time you ruin my plans, _**WITCH!"**_  
  
I'm vaguely aware of the Sheriff pulling up and parking outside, but it doesn't concern me right now, so I ignore him as he stops in the open front door and arches his brow in confusion at Stiles' presence here. I don't think anyone else notices he's here.  
  
Stiles says "I only changed the time flow to keep Scott's bastard of a father from killing him in a drunken rage. If one of my Chronos Spells changed something else, it's from the future! My future! That means I don't know about it! Who are you trying to kill this time, Druid?! I _**know**_ you murdered my mother!"  
  
  
  
Deaton smirks and says "Of course! She got too close to Talia and saw through my plans. It seems you inherited her gift of manipulating the time stream. You _**have**_ to die! I _**need**_ Scott turned, _**and**_ I'll use my granddaughter's Alpha Pack to evolve him into an Alpha _**only**_ I control!"  
  
He throws a handful of mountain ash up, and it encircles Stiles. He's trapped! Deaton then pulls out a gun with wolfsbane bullets and aims at Stiles. 

Stiles can't back up or hide because of the ash. He's panicking too much to use telekinesis.  
  
  
  
Melissa says "I've seen enough! The bastard dies _**now!**_ " She drops the cloaking, and we become visible as she shoves Deaton to the side. 

They fight over the gun, which slides across the room after he drops it. 

He reaches behind him, pulls out a knife, and stabs her with it. 

She clutches her side and falls to the ground as blood flows from her wound.   
  
I try to help, but he magically slams me into the wall and throws an ash ring around me. I'm trapped! _**DAMN!**_ I need to protect Stiles!   
  
Stiles pushes on the ash ring and yells for Melissa to run as Deaton goes for the gun. 

She's trying to stop her bleeding, and Stiles glows from the effort to get through the barrier. 

His eyes swirl and change from golden to ruby red as he finally breaks through and runs to Melissa. He shields her with his body as he gets between her and Deaton.

  
I yell "Stiles, save yourself! Deaton! If you hurt him, I will personally drag you to hell with me."  
  
Deaton smirks as he shoots Stiles in the shoulder. 

We scream "Stiles!" Were there three voices?  
  
Stiles falls to the floor, clutching his shoulder in pain. Blue Nordic Wolfsbane. That's Kate's favorite rare brand. How does he have the same thing Kate shot Derek with, in my time? He must supply her wolfsbane.  
  
Deaton turns the gun towards Melissa. I yell "break _**this**_ ash ring so I can help!"   
  
Stiles roars in anger and desperation. I feel him pull on the pack bonds for help.   
  
Deaton levels the gun at Melissa's head, says "I killed Claudia when she got in my way! Ironic _**I'm**_ the one to _**kill**_ her son. You're just collateral damage. Sorry, but you have to die! I'll cast a spell to force _**my**_ captive werewolf to bite Scott. I'll have to kill the last Stilinski, to ensure I have no further problems controlling _**my**_ territory with _**my**_ pet _**Alpha**_ wolf."

Why do villains always tell their nefarious plan just before they try to kill you?  
  
When the shot goes off, I expect Melissa or Stiles to be dead, but it's Deaton that falls dead. 

I look at the door and see an angry Sheriff with a smoking gun in his hand. "No one lays a hand on my son or Melissa!"  
  
Melissa breaks the seal around me, and I run to Stiles. His eyes are glowing crimson, and his shoulder is spider webbing from the wolfsbane. 

I yell "Get the gun so we can use one of the bullets to cure him."  
  
Melissa says "the gun slid into that crack in the wall. I don't have telekinesis, that's Stiles' ability."   
  
I clutch Stiles to my chest and leech his pain. He says "sorry Peter, I thought Scott was hurt, possibly dying, and needed my help and I couldn't let Deaton kill Melissa. She's like my mom."  
  
I say "I know, little one. Deaton used Scott's phone to trick you. He wanted you dead. Don't you dare die on me! You can't leave me now that I've finally found you. Hold on! I can't lose my mate or I will go insane. We'll get the antidote! You have to hang on!"  
  
They throw the table over to get at the hole in the wall. John asks Melissa "why are his eyes glowing? And why does the wound look like that?" as he struggles to reach the gun.  
  
She says "they're werewolves and Stiles just evolved into an Alpha. Wolfsbane is poisonous to them."  
  
The back door is loudly ripped off its hinges as Derek forces his way inside. "Stiles! Stiles! Are you okay?"  
  
  
  
I may have a few tears on my face, but I say as calmly as possible, as I try not to panic, "Deaton shot him with wolfsbane. The gun slid into that hole. We need it to cure him."   
  
  
  
Derek roars with his shining blue eyes and punches a hole in the wall. They get the gun with a triumphant grunt. John digs one of the bullets out and hands it to Derek.   
  
He opens it and pours the blue wolfsbane into a pile, lights it on fire, and brings the powder over to us.  
  
  
  
I say "This will hurt, a lot! Brace yourself and hold onto me. It will only take a minute, and then you'll be okay."   
  
He nods, grips my wrist, and grunts out "do it."   
  
I nod to Derek. He pushes it into the wound and Stiles grips my wrist with bone-crushing strength as he convulses and moans in pain. 

They hear my wrist snap, but I continue to hold onto him, leeching his pain as best I can. 

After a few seconds, he relaxes and takes a deep breath as the spider webbing recedes and the wound heals.  
  
I breathe a sigh of relief as he snuggles closer to my chest.  
  
John sighs in relief as he looks at Derek and then at me. "Peter, I heard your wrist break. How are you not reacting to that? Derek, how did you know where we are or that he needs help? Are you a werewolf also? Can someone please tell me what's going on!?"  
  
I hold up my wrist. "it's already healed, Stiles comes first."  
  
We then explain that the Argents are hunters, and they targeted my family because a _**few**_ of us were werewolves. Derek heard Stiles roar and felt him pull on our pack bonds for help. Deaton killed Stiles' mother because she was a witch and got in the way of him controlling my sister. Melissa is Claudia's sister. Stiles is my mate. Both of them are witches. I haven't deflowered him because he's under 16. Derek is four years older than him, and I'm two years older than him. I think we covered everything.  
  
The explaining took close to three hours. I then ask "what brought you here, sheriff?"  
  
"I brought the article of the deer with the spiral to see if Deaton could identify it. My hacker says the identification code on the picture identifies it came from a camera belonging to this office. I wanted to see what he had to do with it. It looks like it was perfect timing."

  
  
  



	15. The Sheriff Joins Us

**FRIDAY, January 14th**

Stiles stands up, and the Sheriff pulls him into a tight embrace as he says "I thought I was going to lose you there, son."

 

They embrace for a long minute before letting go.

John takes a deep calming breath and looks at me. "From now on, none of us keeps anything from the others. We obviously need to work together." 

I nod in agreement.

He continues "that means Kate _**will**_ be showing up soon, to finish the job she started on Peter, and she'll want to kill Derek as well since he's a witness to the Hale fire. Sorry, Arson! I'll relook at the case and see if I can implicate her. What I don't understand is if she was Laura's mate, how could she seduce and have sex with her mate's underage little brother?"

I say "it's against the law to have _**penetrating**_ sex with someone underage. The legal system _**is**_ more forgiving with your mate, but not your mate's brother. I think the entire thing was to impress Kate's father with how badly she fucked with a werwolf's head. Not to mention it kept Derek on the hook as the scapegoat for Laura to semi-publicly kill later so the Argent hunter clan would accept her. They never counted on me surviving."

Derek scoffs "semi-publicly? That means they'd have to kill me in a way that shows I'm a werewolf, so the other hunters know. Wolfsbane or fire."

John says "she sent an aconite bomb to your apartment. It got the landlord. Luckily she was human, and even though aconite is toxic, it's more toxic to werewolves."

Derek looks shocked, and Stiles says "that one sick bitch."

I say "that was one sick bitch. Just like Kate. I mean Kate tried to burn her brother and his family, but Chris was called out to hunt a feral wolf, and he survived as well as saving his wife and daughter. I don't think he knows she had anything to do with it. Hell! He doesn't even know that Gerard and Kate are going around fabricating evidence to kill safe, stable packs because they aren't human."  

Stiles looks at me nervously as he bites his lip.

I smile fondly and ask "what is it, Stiles? What's bothering you? I know that look is you want to verify something you figured out but don't want to upset anyone. Please tell me whatever it is." 

He scuffs the floor and looks at his feet. "When mom was in the hospital, the day she died, I was stalling to see her because I knew she was about to die and the things she was going to say to me."

A tear rolls down his cheek, and Melissa wraps her arm around him and noses her nose into his neck in a motherly fashion.

He takes a deep breath. "I found myself in your room. It was two doors down from mom's. I know that reading to someone in a coma helps them. I had been reading to you for a couple of days. I was upset, and I wound up venting along with reading and ..."

He takes another deep breath. "Your eyes glowed blue. I knew you weren't a Witch like us because we feel the magic in each other. I thought I was going crazy also. I didn't go back."

Derek and I hear Melissa in our head say "Stiles needs to let John know that you're not dangerous to us and have a heart and he also needs to let some of this off his chest to his dad. He told you a couple of days that he figured this out. Just go with it."

Derek nods and says "your eyes were gold before the fire."

Stiles ducks his head lower and says "the autopsy reports on the bodies found near you showed their necks were broken before they burned. They were already dead so didn't feel anything. Did you kill them in a mercy killing to save them from that fate? Like Derek did with Paige?"

I smile "yes I did. I wasn't aware you knew or looked into that." 

Derek says "wait. How did you know her name was Paige?"

Stiles looks nervously at Melissa, and she nods. "Paige was a Witch. The day before her death she discovered that the druid supplying her with medication to suppress her magic until she was 16 had been adding Mountain Ash to it and she asked me what that does."

Melissa says "what did you tell her, honey?"

He says "I told her that was to hurt werewolves or to trigger bite rejection in humans."

I say "the druid was Deaton?"

He nods. 

Derek's face is briefly covered in anger and hatred. "That bastard set me up! He suggested I get one of the local Alphas to turn her, but I was afraid to do something like that without talking to my mother first."

I nod at the realization and hug Stiles and then Derek. I look at John as I decide to tell him a few things a found in my time. "The fire inspector, Meyers, filed the report in four days if that gives you anything to go on. He said it was an accident and electrical. None of the photos showed anything having to do with electrical outlets, wires or anything to support that claim."

I look at Melissa and Derek as I decide what to reveal. Gerard will be a danger. "I say Kate was following Gerard Argent's orders. He's dying and wants to be an Alpha werewolf to survive and doesn't care if his kids are killed to accomplish it. That's why he lured Laura back. I now know Deaton supplied Kate with the wolfsbane. I don't think it was her only family fire."

I look at Derek and Stiles. They nod in agreement to my unspoken question.

I nod as I form my question. "John. Melissa. If you were human members of our pack, we'd have a pack bond with you, and you could feel if one of us is in danger. That's how Stiles called Derek for help."

Melissa says "that seems to be the best answer for keeping us protected from the hunters and any other threat. I fear his granddaughter's pack will come looking for us eventually." 

John says "if it ensures my son stays safe, I'm all for it." 

I walk up to Melissa. She bares her neck, and I scent mark her neck as does Derek and Stiles, and then we do the same with John. A small wolf's head with a triskele mark appears on the back of their shoulder to signify the pack bond forming between us.

I _**never,**_ in my wildest dream, would have  _ **ever**_ thought I'd be an Alpha again.


	16. Cover Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> clean up spell  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5B9QhxRVR8

**FRIDAY, January 14th**

 

 

I'm An Alpha with a _**pack**_ consisting of _**my**_ mate, his father, his aunt, as well as the _**last**_ of my bloodline.

I think about Cora.

She has yet to return to us. I know where they will hold her and we'll have her back eventually. For now, she's believed dead.

John says "take Stiles, Melissa, and Derek to the hospital. Stiles and Melissa need to work their shift, and Derek will visit. I'll be there after I deal with this crime scene."

We all look around at the mess. John says "I'll say I found the door ripped off the wall and Deaton was already dead."  
  
Melissa says "Stiles can fix the door with his telekinesis and we can clean up this mess with a simple spell. Stiles can switch out the bullet's in his body so that it looks like suicide."

John asks "telekinesis? Is that how you get into my safe? Or do you have the combination?"

Stiles smiles and says "Yes. I do know the combination, but it's faster and easier."

I pick up Scott's phone from the ground after Stiles fixes the door, switches the bullets and casts [the spell](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5B9QhxRVR8) to clean away anything involving the supernatural.

Stiles says "if Deaton has Scott's phone, where is Scott? Is he okay?"

Melissa picks up Scott's phone and calls Allison. "Allison? Is my son with you?"

Melissa breathes a sigh of relief and says "thanks."

Allison asks "how did you call me?"

Melissa says "Scott gave me your number because I always want to have a way to reach him if I wind up working overtime."

Someone found his phone and saw the lock screen is him and I together. They thought it was my phone. I was worried something happened to him. Tell him I have his phone. I have to get back to my patients now. Thanks, Allison."

I say "look around and make sure there's nothing in those files about Stiles or his family or my family."

Melissa silently puts on gloves and starts going through the files. She pulls out a folder on Stiles, Claudia, Talia, Kate, Chris, Derek, and me.

I hold up my hand. "Grab the one on Cora as well."

She merely arches her brow and complies.

Stiles gets his thoughtful 'I need to investigate that' look.

Melissa asks "can we go now?"

I'm glad she's on my side.

Stiles and Melissa get in the back, and he patches her up with the supplies he swiped from Deaton's office on the way back to the hospital.

I marvel at how efficiently and professionally he bandages her.

He put a rune in the bandages. When he sees my brow arch in curiosity, he says "it's a healing rune. Melissa will heal almost as fast as we do."

I keep my eyes on him the entire ride back. So I'm a _**little**_ overprotective and possessive. I _**can**_ live with that if it keeps him safe. He died in my arms once already, nearly twice. Sue me.

 

I probably should've planned out how to stop Gerard and the others _**before**_ I came back. To be fair, that wasn't a priority.

Stiles seems bothered by something, but he's not saying anything. 

As we get out of the car, Stiles is suddenly in my arms.

I see his agitation and nervousness. I just can't smell it. He hides his emotions too easily and too well.

I pull him closer as I stroke his hair to calm him. "What's wrong, Little One?"

Melissa eyes him nervously, and Derek watches for threats.

Stiles takes a deep breath and nervously clutches me. "Can there be more than one Alpha in a pack? I want to stay with you. You're my mate."

I smile and say "yes, the Alpha can have an Alpha Mate. Deaton mentioned his granddaughter's pack is an alpha pack. A pack of Alphas. He must be a lot older than he looks to have a granddaughter old enough to be an emissary. He'd have to be in his 60s, if not older. In my time we thought she was his little sister."

I tilt Stiles chin up, so he's looking in my eyes. "I would _**never**_ let you leave me, let alone send you away, for anything! The thought of you being an Alpha appeals to me. You are way smarter than I, you happen to hide it better. You. Are. My. Mate. I love you. Okay, Little One?"

Stiles smiles at me and says "okay, Peter." He tucks himself under my chin and snuffles at my neck. A few minutes later we walk to the back wall, hidden from sight.

Melissa climbs onto my back and holds on like a howler monkey.

Stiles and I climb the wall up to the roof. We sneak back into my room where Melissa and switch places with our glamours.

Stiles hugs me, and I pull him into a real kiss. I kiss him as hard as I dare with Momma McCall watching, which isn't that much, damn it. It's a little above chaste, but not as much as I want.

 

Melissa goes to the nurse's station to work on her patient charting.

Stiles heads off to start his shift. I can't wait to see what he gives us for dinner today.

Derek walks in the front door to visit me, as planned. He's ensconced in the chair next to my bed by the time Stiles comes around with the food trays.

Dinner is Creamy Garlic Butter Tuscan Shrimp. We devoured it like the ravenous wolves we are. 

Scott calls Melissa in a panic about 5 pm because he found Deaton dead at the clinic. He went there for his after-school job and discovered him there. He thinks it looks like suicide.

We hear Melissa tell him to call the police so they can find out what happened and call her back when Sheriff Stilinski clears the area.

Sheriff Stilinksi calls Melissa at 5:30 because Scott's a minor and he needs his parent or guardian with him while he questions Scott about his discovery.

Melissa comes in and tells Stiles she has to leave and she'll see him later.

As soon as she goes, Jennifer tries to apologize to Stiles, but he tries to keep her away from him.

The other nurses notice and step in to keep her away from him.

A short time later Jennifer asks the nurse at the front desk for help with her computer charting.

The lady doesn't even look up and says "you should have thought about that before you pissed off Melissa. I'm not about to go against her wishes. In case you haven't noticed yet, dearie. Melissa runs this hospital, and when someone's on her shitlist, no one wants to help them until Melissa says they're okay. Not to mention, we all love Stiles. Enjoy your stay in Siberia." The lady goes back to her chart and dismisses Jennifer.

I can't help smiling. The door is closed, so Derek quietly asks why I'm happy that Jennifer is ostracized.

I sigh and say "that bitch out there has been drugging the comatose male patients so she can rape them. She did that to me, and it woke up my wolf. She also tried to be a bitch to Stiles on his first day here and told him to get out of my room, and he must be an idiot since he's taking care of comatose patients and idiots like that should be cleaning her floor."

Derek growls and shines his blue eyes and moves as if to attack her. I'm not sure if it's because she raped me or the way she treated Stiles. Either way, it warms my heart that he wants to do something about her.

I hold my hand up and say "I told Melissa all about Jennifer and what she's doing to the men here. I heard the click of a camera last night when she raped the man two doors down. Melissa says she's going to get enough proof for the families of the patients and the law to deal with her. That way, she's punished, and all of us supernaturals aren't involved."

Derek growls "it's never okay to take advantage of someone that can't say no. Stiles is a bloody genius, how could anyone think he's stupid? It's bad enough that hunters abused me, I can't take that they abused you as well."

He hangs his head in shame. "It's my fault they abused you. I wasn't here to protect you. God. You must hate me."

 

I pat his shoulder and say "never have I hated you. Neither in this timeline or the other one. I was angry, at first, when I found out you had sex with Kate."

I hug him "I was angry because you were an impressionable minor on the rebound from losing Paige and Kate was well over ten years older than you. Stiles always pointed out you were a kid, and she was a psychotic adult manipulating you. You didn't know what was happening to me here, so you couldn't possibly have stepped up to protect me. It's not your fault. Nothing is your fault. Not even Paige. That was Deaton."

He nods and tucks his head under my chin and stays there for a few minutes before going back to his chair. He leaves for the Stilinski house half an hour later when visiting hours end.

I smile at how much closer Derek and I are this time around. In the other timeline, no one could ever touch Derek, not even Cora. He couldn't believe that anyone would want to touch him in a right and natural way.


	17. John Learns About Time Travel

**FRIDAY, January 14th**  
**10 pm**  
The last nursing round finished, and Melissa already tucked me into bed.  
  
As soon as the door closes, I tuck a few pillows in my bed, strip down, shift, and go out my window. After nearly losing Stiles today, there is no way I'm not going to be near him at that gay hot spot tonight.  
  
I head straight to Stilinski's room and borrow some clothes. I don't think John wants to see me naked at his house with his minor son. John and Stiles are in the kitchen when I finish getting dressed. John raises an eyebrow at me.  
  
I shrug and say "I nearly lost Stiles today. There is no way I'm going to let him go to _The Jungle_ alone or without me. We're also going. We'll keep a low profile. I'm wearing a glamour to make me look like Harris. He's screwing several of his high school students, so I don't feel bad about his reputation."  
  
Stiles says "Harris hangs out there with one of the girls he's seeing, but tonight he has to score essays, so I doubt he'll be there."  
  
John says "he's sleeping with _**several**_ of his students? Do you know their names? It's against the law to touch anyone under 18 or your mate under the age of 16. Several means it's not his mate."  
  
  
  
Stiles says "yeah. John Miller, Debbie Reynolds, Stephanie Smith, and Thomas Sellers. That's how Thomas gets enough credits to pass the class. What are you going to do about it? The students will love you forever if you get him out of teaching."  
  
John says "I'm going to get a little evidence and then hang him out to dry. He's in his 40s. That means he's way over ten years older than any of them. That makes this a felony. I see serious jail time in his future." 

Derek says "with substitute teacher Kate screwing me; I don't like that a teacher is having sex with his students. Males and females mean he's bisexual, sadistic, and a predator."

Stiles says "according to John Miller he has no stamina. He's asleep within 3 seconds of doing it. Both John and Thomas have pictures of him in their respective beds, naked, post-sex. I'm sure they won't mind you having a copy. They both gave me a copy when they saw how he was harassing me. Give me a second, and I'll email it to you."

John sees the pictures Stiles has of Harris with the students and says send me that tame one with the girl. She's posed like a teenage hooker, that shows he's not innocent, and it doesn't get these kids nudes in public."

  
  
I say "glad to see locker room talk hasn't changed any since I was in school."

Derek asks "so how are we going to do this tonight?"  
  
Stiles says "Peter is officially comatose. I'm not the type of person to screw around so Peter can't walk up and say he's my mate. He'll have to stay incognito, hence the Harris glamour. Derek can notice me, his new roommate, at the bar with Danny and introduce himself. I'm trying to get Danny over the breakup. Maybe get him to have fun or meet someone new. Roxy will be there sometime tonight. She or He is a Harpy and protective of us."  
  
John says "Roxy? The dark-skinned Diva that was friends with your mom?"  
  
Stiles nods and says "that's the one."  
  
  
  
John says "no wonder she's frightening."  
  
We hear a honk. Stiles runs out and gets in Danny's car. Derek follows the vehicle on foot. He doesn't know where the club is. Before I can leave John says "how do you know so much about Gerard, Kate, the alpha pack and Stiles."  
  
I turn back around and say "sit down, and we'll talk about it."  
  
Once we're sitting at the table, I start with telling him about Stiles dying in my arms in my time and how stupid I was. I explain everything that happened from the time I woke up from my coma all the way to when I came back in time. I then tell him about everything that happened since I came back.  
  
I say "I realized how stupid I was when I started seeing the real Stiles, and he wasn't hiding from me. How my admiration and love for him have grown as I realize how _**perfect**_ he is indeed.  
  
John asked a few questions here and there but mostly listened to everything I had to say. I finally say "Say something. Anything."  
  
John says "Stiles kept that much shit from me, and nearly got himself killed on numerous occasions, because he wanted to keep me safe and out of the supernatural! I'm glad he's had you to protect him this time around, and the last time. I can't let any of that happen to my son! _**We**_ can't _**allow**_ the Nogitsune to possess him."  
  
I say "you can't be a wolf and a fox at the same time. Stiles, in the other timeline, figured out Deaton put herbs in the ice bath they drowned him in to make him weak enough to be possessed. Deaton is dead. None of that can happen now. I never bit Scott. I bit Stiles, and I know where the Nemeton is."  
  
John says "I take it Stiles is a better wolf than Scott was?"  
  
I nod with a small smile. "Extremely. Stiles has already evolved into an Alpha. Scott took over a year with extreme pressure from the alpha pack and Deaton to force it. Stiles hasn't even seen his first full moon yet and has total control. Scott kept losing control for months. Stiles was always covering for him and hiding his lapses."  
  
John says "you, Melissa and I will work together and plan how to protect the pack from all of the threats. _The Jungle_ is where the kanima attacked, so I know you don't think that's a secure place. Go. Protect Stiles, and we'll discuss it tomorrow. I can show up and talk with you and Melissa when I go to see the survivor of the fire at the hospital."  
  
I get up, shake his hand in gratitude, and hurry out the door.  


  
I arrive at The Jungle as Stiles is talking to Danny at the bar. I hear Danny say "tell me you chose to be a wolf. I'll kill anyone that forced themselves on you, in any way. Secret circle protects each other. You're the youngest of us. It kills me you have to pretend that narcissistic brat is your best friend. Damn witch rules!"  
  
  
  



	18. The Jungle

**FRIDAY 1-14-2011**

  
I arrive at The Jungle as Stiles is talking to Danny at the bar. I hear Danny say "tell me you chose to be a wolf. I'll kill anyone that forced themselves on you, in any way. Secret circle protects each other. You're the youngest of us. It kills me you have to pretend that narcissistic brat is your best friend. Damn witch rules! "  
  
Stiles says "I know. I put in the request to change the rules, _**again**_ ,  when mom died. I got the usual song and dance. _The rules were made to protect us from hunters._ "  
  
Danny says "the Witch that made those rules should be lynched."

  
  
Stiles says "pretty sure he was. They hung witches back then."  
  
Danny takes a sip of his drink. "Stiles, don't even _**think**_ about _**taking**_ or _**changing**_ my anger. I've _**seen**_ you in action. I _**know**_ what you can do with your empathy."  
  
Stiles says "I would never do that to anyone in our Circle. No one knows I have that talent. I'm not sure I want anyone to know I'm a phreak like that. Melissa's passive ability is telepathy, and you've got psychometry. Me, I get to feel how everyone's feeling. It sucks rocks." He leans his head on his arms on the counter.  
  
Can an empath do that? Is that why the Argents were always courteous and respectful to him? He was influencing how Victoria and Chris felt about him?  
  
Danny says "you're not a phreak. It takes someone special to do that and even more special to learn how to influence how others feel. As I was saying, do I have to kill him, did he force you to turn?"  
  
Stiles shakes his head. "Calm down. I _**chose**_ this. He's my mate, and he hasn't forced anything. He's protected me. He knows Melissa, and I are witches, but secret circle rules say we can't reveal any of the others to anyone." He growls "I hate the rules."  
  
Wait Danny is a witch? That makes so much sense.  
  
Danny says "you forget, my father and brother were born wolves. I know all about wolves and the need to be with your mate, at all costs. My last name is Hawaiian for the full moon."  
  
_**WHAT?**_ How did no one catch that?  
  
Stiles sardonically says "Lucky for us no one speaks Hawaiian."  
  
Danny bites out in anger and hatred "yeah, and I had to watch Gerard Argent cut my father in half. I'm not going to run and hide if his hunters go after you. Fuck the rules! I want to either rip the bastard's heart out or watch someone else do it."  
  
_**WHAT!??**_ That's how Stiles knew ahead of time about Gerard and what type of person he is.  
  
Stiles leans against Danny's shoulder and looks up at him sweetly as he says "we aren't here to talk about what's happening in my life. We're here to cheer you up after your boyfriend found his mate and dumped you. We're here for you, not me."  
  
I walk five feet closer, to an empty table and sit down. It's close enough for Stiles to sense me.

He looks at me and smiles before turning back to Danny.

A tall black Amazon joins them. She smells off, and her eyes flash black when she gets close enough to feel the wolf in Stiles. _**That**_ must be Roxy.  
  
Stiles greets her and smiles.

She smiles and hugs him before getting a drink and going to the far side of the dance floor to her friends.  
  
About 15 minutes later a pushy guy starts hitting on Stiles. He's trying to give him a drink which Stiles refuses. Danny tells him to take a hike. He's still pushy. When he grabs Stiles wrist, I growl.  
  
As I get up to intervene, Derek's hand descends onto the man's hand, twists and removes it from Stiles. He snarls "the kid said no, repeatedly! Now I'm telling you to walk away, while you can still walk!"  
  
I walk up even though Derek has it under control and say "I heard him say he's only 15. Now would be your cue to leave!"

  
  
The man suddenly goes pale, looks at all of our faces and wisely decided to go away.  
  
Danny looks at me and says "who are you? Why are you wearing Harris' face?"  
  
Stiles says "Danny? This is the guy I was telling you about, Peter. He's trying to pull one over on the hunters."  
  
Danny holds out his hand and says "I'm Danny. Behind closed doors and in underground clubs, I'm Stiles' best friend and were like brothers. You have good hearing, so I'm sure you overheard us earlier."  
  
I smile at his boldness. "Yes, I heard some of your conversations. I should have realized there was more than one or two in my mate's _**circle of friends.**_ Did he tell you the Druid tried to kill him and is no longer among the living?"  
  
Danny looks at Stiles in surprise as Stiles nervously takes a sip of his drink. "That apparently hasn't come up yet."

Derek says "he even evolved, his eyes are red now. I can't even do that. It appears our Alpha's mate is an Alpha himself. Between you and me, they are the perfect match."

Stiles blushes as Danny's eyes go wide.

He looks at Stiles, and he nods slowly as he briefly shines his red eyes.

Danny claps a hand on his back, and one arm hugs him. "Good job. That's very rare."  
  
We talk about little stuff and what Danny is looking for in a temporary date since he knows none of them is his mate. Being half wolf means his mate is more than likely a wolf. One of the twins perhaps?  
  
An hour or so later a beautiful girl walks up and hugs Stiles.

  
I jealously glare daggers at her as I valiantly hold in my growl.  
  
She squeals "Flex!" She looks at Danny and says "Pop! What are you two doing here? Can I have my rematch now?"  
  
Stiles smiles happily and says "Ditto! We don't compete anymore. You know that."  
  
A Black older teen walks up and says "I heard you gave up the title. After winning the World Title 4 years in a row, no one wanted to challenge you for the Title. Shame. You two are ... were the best in the business. You haven't competed for a few years now. I bet you forgot how. I bet you don't have what it takes, to take on a challenge anymore."  
  
Danny says "Flick! We may not compete, but we're still the top act."  
  
Peter asks "what're they talking about and why do they call you Flex?"  
  
Flick says "these two are or were the World Champions of Dance. Flex and Pop. Flex here, is professionally trained in ballet with a lot of flexibility and pop is the best at Hip Hop and can pop it like you would never believe."  
  
Ditto says "and yes, he said _**WORLD!**_ "  
  
Derek does a double take and my jaw drops. That explains how someone supposedly clumsy can do some of the things I saw him do.  
  
The music changes and the lights around Stiles and Danny come on. The DJ announces "it looks like we have a couple of dance champs here that want to dance a dance-off. How about it folks? Want to be the judges?"  
  
Stiles drops his head on the bar and says _**"Crap!"**_  
  
Danny's music comes on. Danny starts his dance and Stiles joins in, and they [dance together](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLtSfYX8tJk&list=RDbEhpzF1Odos&index=2), they make it look like competing or converting from one style to the other. It's brilliant. Everyone cheers when they finish.  
  
Ditto and Flick [dance together](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbKjwKmpRKU&t=206s). They attempt the same theme but not as well as Stiles.

I think Stiles and Danny won.  
  
The kids chant Flex and Pop. Once they take a bow, the crowd chants 'encore!' They dance one more routine, and I can't believe Stiles' flexibility.  
  
Everyone breaks off to dance.  
  
Danny and Stiles are dancing, and Danny points at a cute guy eyeing him. Stiles says "he feels off, can't trust him."  
  
He then nods at a cute guy shyly eyeing Danny and says "how about him."  
  
Danny smiles, so Stiles drags him over to him and says "I need to sit down and rest, but my friend needs a partner. You just volunteered. Danny this is ..." Stiles looks at him and says "what's your name?"  
  
He says "Charlie."  
  
"Charlie, Danny. Danny, Charlie. See you later, or ... maybe not."  
  
He walks back to the bar and leans into me.    
  
I whisper to him "you never cease to amaze me."  
  
He smiles at me and says "looks like my mission was a success."  
  
Danny looks at Stiles and says "we're going to Lenny's to talk and get to know each other. Do you have a ride?"  
  
Stiles nods and points at Derek.

  
  
Danny nods and leaves.  
  
Stiles looks at us and says "do you guys want to stay or go? Crowds, really aren't my thing."  
  
Derek says "I enjoyed watching you dance, but it's a little too loud and crowded for me. I'd rather go."  
  
I say "I don't want all of these men to continue leering and drooling over you any more than necessary. I don't want anyone but me, and our pack, touching you. I'd rather go. I brought Derek's car, so we have a ride home." I hand Derek the keys, and we head to the car.  
  
At the car, I climb into the back and say "I did a good job not touching and holding you the entire time we were here, but I need to cuddle you now. Sit in the back, with me so that we can cuddle on the way home. I seriously need to replace the smell of those humans on my mate with my scent."  
  
He smiles and happily climbs in the back, with me.  
  
I hug him and rub my hands all over his arms and back and chest to remove any human smells on him. I don't even bother to be sly about it. I then kiss him thoroughly.  
  
  
  
Stiles quietly moans into my mouth and pants out "what was that for?"  
  
I say "I want you to smell like me and I wanted to taste you as well. I like kissing you. I live to kiss you." I smirk and wiggle my brows and say there are a few other things I want to do ... when you're old enough."  
  
I feel Derek glare at me, so I say "I think that's all our chaperone is going to allow tonight."

Stiles, Peter, Derek, and John are talking around the table when Stiles gets a message from Danny about his date. He chokes on air when he looks at the picture. Peter grabs the phone and looks at the picture.

Peter says "it looks like Danny had a hot date."


	19. We discuss time travel

**SATURDAY,** **January 15th  
****Early morning**

When Melissa checks on me, I ask "did you know Stiles was a dancer, with Danny? They were World Champions for four years in a row. They quit competing because no one would challenge them. They were the Chuck Norris of the dancing world."

Melissa says "I knew they danced together and also know it killed him when he got the letter. They strongly suggested Stiles not compete anymore because the others wouldn't compete if they were there. I didn't know he competed on a world level or how the championships worked. Neither John or I could ever go to his competitions."  
  
She thinks about the dance trophy she saw once.

She sighs and says "that explains why his dance competitions were in Australia, France, England, and Germany. He never mentioned they were that good. I wonder why he never tells anyone when he's good at something instead of hiding it away. He should be proud of his accomplishments."

I can see she's puzzling it out.

I ask "he has other accomplishments he's hiding?"

She frowns and says "this is between us." She walks over to the painting I've been admiring. A wolf at the lake at night on the full moon. "Have you noticed these?"

I say "yes. I want to buy that painting when I" I use the quotation marks sign "wake up. That looks like my wolf."

She smiles and says "notice the painter's initials are WS? Stiles did these. It's how he helps pay the bills without his dad knowing, that and loading trucks for some mail order cosmetic company. Stiles successfully filed his emancipation about five years ago. He paints on Saturday mornings and Monday nights when his dad thinks he's at lacrosse practice. I don't know where he paints."

I'm in shock. "These are breathtaking."

Now that I think about it, Stiles always has money on hand to fix his jeep (after I wrecked the hood and tore out the battery), get gas, groceries, lend to Scott for his dates and whatever else pops up.

I remember he paid $50 so Scott could go ice skating when I was dead, in the other timeline. Allison insisted they bring him and Lydia since Stiles paid for it. She didn't know how much he paid for that privilege.

Melissa nods. "He's a good kid with many talents. He has a big heart and will throw himself in the line of fire to protect his friends and family, without thought to himself, but he doesn't understand when someone else risks themselves for him. He doesn't think he's worth it."

I growl and angrily say "how could he not know he's worth it! He's worth so much more."

Melissa sadly says "I don't know for sure, but I suspect it has something to do with Claudia. I know she was abusive to him in the hospital, in her last days. She was quiet when I was around, but Stiles was normally in tears. I told him Claudia wasn't herself, the poison drove her insane, and she didn't know what she was saying. I don't think he believed me. She _**was**_ his mother, and he believed anything she told him."

I nod sadly. "I can see that."

I need to get Stiles to talk about Claudia's last days. No one should ever speak to him like that, especially his mother.

I call Derek and say "I want to buy the painting of the wolf howling at the full moon that's hanging on the wall in my room. Can you conduct an inquiry with the director on how much, and who the painter is? I want to see what other paintings they have. That looks like my wolf."

He says "I'll set up an appointment to speak with the director Monday. He wants to discuss your case as well."

Derek stating that reminds me of something else. Stiles has also been paying my medical bills. 

I facepalm. I never knew that in the other timeline.

 

 

**11 am**  
John brings Derek to see me and Melissa is still here. 

They close the door, and John asks Derek everything he can remember about the night of the fire.

He tells John everything about Kate and what she did to him. How long she was trying to get him naked and how she finally succeeded. He tells him about his sister coming here and what she said to him about it.

After they wrap up, John turns off the recorder and pulls out a separate notebook. "Okay, Peter. Go over the events in this other timeline that you came back to change and then tell us what you've already changed."

I go over the other timeline all the way to where I carried Stiles' body to his house and laid it on his bed and went upstairs to cast the spell. I go day by day from the day I awoke in the woods with Laura's body. I still leave out Matt as well as Malia and Corrine.

No Scott to make her into a human again which means no worries about Corrine.

Derek can't bite Jackson this time around. I vaguely say Scott got Stiles to break into Gerard's office to swipe his bestiary and then took off with Allison. Stiles had to hold a paralyzed Derek afloat in a pool of water for nearly three hours until someone went looking for them.

Derek asks "how can a human that weighs over 60 pounds less than I do hold himself and me afloat for that long? That shouldn't be possible."

Melissa says "he must have used a stamina expending spell to make it possible. Those only last 2.5 hours though."

I facepalm. "Why didn't anyone ever notice that? I should have realized it's not possible. I'm an idiot when it comes to noticing he isn't a normal human back then."

John is agitated. "Is there anything else I don't know about?"

I say "the only thing I can add is I was not a very nice person, in the other time. I only sought to save Stiles. I didn't give a damn about anyone else." 

I look around at their disappointed faces and say "when I arrived here, Stiles readily accepted me. I showed I'd stay with him and protect him and you. Everything is different for me. I have a reason to care about everyone. I have the family I never had in the other timeline. We didn't know about Laura and Kate. Stiles suspected, but couldn't prove it, so he never said anything. I didn't know half the shit about Deaton that Stiles was trying to verify or I'd have ripped his heart out the first time I saw the bastard. I found Stiles' files, after his death. He hid them in his Grimoire."

John says "I see that being with him, having someone love you fully, trust you entirely, and depend on you _**has**_ changed you."

Melissa says "Your love for Stiles has made your heart open and allow the love you hid there to grow and bloom. You're not the psychotic, narcissistic bastard that left him with a dead body in a parking garage, alone, so you could murder the Argents."

Derek says "I don't think this Peter could leave him for anything. I see you put him above everything and everyone. I like this Peter better than the one you described."

I reply "you're right. I love Stiles too much to leave or abandon him. He _**is**_ my anchor."

John says "now we have to figure out how we're going to change things. The Nogitsune won't be able to possess him because Deaton is dead and Stiles is a wolf. You can't be a wolf and a fox at the same time. That still leaves all the other threats. We need to work on Kate first."


	20. Stiles' Background

 

**SATURDAY,** **January 15th** **** ~~~~

John says "now we have to figure out how we're going to change things. The Nogitsune won't be able to possess him because Deaton is dead and Stiles is a wolf. You can't be a wolf and a fox at the same time. That still leaves all the other threats. We need to work on Kate first."

I say "the reason Kate was able to manipulate Allison so easily was Scott was a wolf and lied to her at every turn. That gave Kate a way to weasel her way into Allison's confidences." 

John says "This time Scott's human and doesn't know about werewolves." 

I nod "He won't be lying to her. She always tells Scott everything, and Melissa can tell us what he knows. Stiles will tell us what he sees and hears from school. School." 

I look down as I ponder and try to think clearly. "There's something about the school I'm missing, something important."

Melissa says "you said Deaton's sister is the counselor at his school so she could keep an eye on him for Deaton. That means she's a possible threat. Laws of magic say you can't use spells at schools or churches because that is community land and no one can claim it as part of their territory."

Derek asks "so that means she can't use magic there, and neither can Stiles?"

John says "I need to learn the basics of what's allowed and not allowed in magic since my son and you are part of the magic world."

Melissa holds her hand up,  and blue flames burn up and turn into a child's reader. She says "this is the book we give to all Witch children to learn the basics of Secret Circle life and the rules we have to follow."

John turns a little pale but accepts the book. "Thanks."

Derek says "before we got off topic we were trying to ensure we protect ourselves. We need to add cameras to the school as well."

I say "the Argents were using our home base more than we were and knew it better. We can't use the Hale House because they are already using the tunnels under the house."

Melissa says "Yes. We need to fortify a safe base. That's why the Argents decimated your pack the other time. They made a stronghold before you could, patrolled the woods, watched the Hale House, followed all known wolves and their cars."

John says "she's right. Wolves need to patrol and hunt. You need a different base. One they don't know."

I say "we can use the house as a setup. Make it look like we're still operating there. In the other time, Derek moved his pack to the old abandoned train station, deep in the forest. No one knows it's there, but us. It's well hidden and overgrown. They never found it. As long as we hide our tracks and wolves travel by treetop, they can't follow us."

John says "Kate showed up on January 27th. But that was after you killed all her fellow arsonists in animal attacks. This time, all we have is Meyers confession to falsifying reports and bank evidence that she bribed him."

I say "yeah, then she was the only one that knew what connected the animal attacks and kills. Stiles figured it out pretty quick, but he never said anything. Not until Chris threatened him at the hospital. This time you have someone in police custody with her name in the file and a statement from Derek with her name and alias in it. She could come sooner than last time or Gerard could show up before Kate to cover her tracks for her."

Melissa says "so we don't know what could happen when. We're aware of the key player's motivations, and that's it. We need to have cameras planted in places watching for her arrival. I'll plant several in my house so I can listen to Allison telling Scott when her aunt is coming."

John says "I'll plant several in my house in case it's compromised, so we can ensure we cover all bases."

I say "we can plant some around the Hale House and in the tunnels under it. All the Argents loved playing in the tunnels. We can plant one watching the road into town. Last time, she was driving a white truck and came in through the warehouse district."

Derek says "Stiles, and I can start planting cameras in the Hale House tonight."

Melissa says "I'll plant the ones at my place tonight, while Scott and Allison are on their date. They're going out together again this evening, to the movies."

I say "the 19th is the full moon. Stiles' first full moon. I don't anticipate any problems with his control, but Derek and I'll stay with him the entire time."

John says "I forgot, he hasn't had his first full moon yet. He likes being a wolf. It helps with his focus and concentration."

Derek says "he was born to be a wolf. He's a natural."

Melissa says "he likes that his wolf keeps his passive abilities from hurting him. He hated always being in pain. He used to use Adderall and morphine to hide how much pain humans cause him."

John looks at her in concern. "Your abilities cause you pain?"

She nods.

I say "I overheard Stiles say he's an empath, you're a telepath, and Danny has psychometry. What's that?"

John looks shocked.

Melissa smiles and says "also known as token-object reading."

I say "ah. He touches something and sees the history of the object."

Melissa nods.

I hear Stiles heartbeat downstairs as he parks his Jeep. "He's just arrived."

 

Ten minutes later he walks into my room and sees the planning party. He says "did we come up with a plan?"

We get him caught up, and he says "I should add I have an ability with chrono magic. I mean you used a spell that I made to come back and each chrono spell takes two to three years to perfect before you can cast it. I CAN look into the timestream to see what's changed so we can make plans."

Melissa angrily says "absolutely _**not!**_ "

Stiles whines "but mom! Things don't affect me like they did before I turned. I should be okay. I think I can handle it."

Melissa says "absolutely! Not! Young Man! I do not want you messing with the timestream on this! Promise me! I don't want to find you in a coma because you got caught in something. Not again! Promise me!"

He frowns "Okay. Jeez! I promise. Technically it wasn't a coma because I was only like that for 28 hours and my body did respond. I got a little too close to Scott's death in the other timeline. I know better now."

John says "you went into a coma before? When did Scott die?"

Stiles looks confused at John, sighs and says "Originally. When Raphe left, it was because he bolted after killing Scott in a drunken rage. I made the spell and sent Melissa back to stop Raphe and save Scott. To know the exact moment I had to see when and how he died. I got pulled into his memories, and it took me 28 hours to fight my way out of what Melissa calls a coma."

Melissa says "this time around Raphe shoved him down the stairs and gave him a concussion. I came home early to change clothes and stopped him from hurting Scott further. I pulled his gun on him and told him to get out and never come back."

John says in anger "that's nice to know."

I look at Stiles as I contemplate him. "You told me you didn't remember how she changed the timeline, just she did. You were so nervous and flustered that any skip in your heartbeat I attributed to anxiety.  It made you comatose to see what needed fixing? You didn't want me to know because you were hurt figuring it out?"

He gives me a guilty look as he says "I always add something to that spell in case someone else uses it. I want to know both timelines. It doesn't work if I'm already dead when the spell is cast."

Derek says "your heart stayed steady."

Melissa says "earlier you said if Peter used one of your time spells it was after you were already dead and or you would have felt it. That's why you weren't sure if he did or not until I asked you if his emotions were too strong to be from a few days and not a few years."

Stiles sighs. "When I feel a big event or decision is something that could go a different direction, I take a sample of my blood and set it aside. I label it as to the date and time. You called me when Scott died. I cut my hand on broken glass and made a small vial with some of my blood. The dried flowers were soaked in that blood and vanilla to hide the scent and then dried again."

I say "the dried flowers that I used in my spell; you must have done them the same way. You must have ... the night I bite you. You had a cut on your hand. You knew your decision to go out looking for a dead body could go south. You made a blood vial before I found you."

He nods and says "yeah. I did. Glad to see my feelings of unease about that was justified."

I think about him going into a coma because he got trapped in the time stream. Was there a period, besides Gerard torturing him, that he disappeared and could have been comatose?

 

 


	21. The Past is the Past

**SATURDAY,** **January 15th** **** ~~~~ **** ~~~~

I think about him going into a coma because he got trapped in the time stream. Was there a period, besides Gerard torturing him, that he disappeared and could have been comatose? **** ~~~~

Melissa says with fond exasperation "you always have to know everything, don't you?"

I'm still racking my brain when my eyes light up with realization. I remember that week Derek wanted Stiles' help researching a Bogart and we couldn't find him.

Stiles said he went camping. He stated he'd be gone a day or two. He was gone eight days. His dad was about to put out an APB when a very tired Stiles showed back up.

My eyes glow red as I say "that explains a camping trip you told me you were going on in the other time. You were supposed to be gone a day or two, but you were gone eight days. When you reappeared all you said is that you had a little trouble and you were exhausted. It sounds like every time you look at the time stream; you're out of it for longer periods of time. I'm not going to take the chance that you don't come out of it."

He backs up at my anger, and I remember he's an empath. I force myself to calm down and focus on shifting my eyes back as I say "listen to Melissa on this, Little One. There are a lot of deaths and a lot of pain involved, and I don't want you hurt. I'd go insane if I lost you. Me insane is a scary thing." I remember just the ones involved in the arson and Argent mess. I know Melissa will see what I remember.

Larson, the arsonist

Unger, the arsonist  


Reddick, the arsonist

Meyers, the inspector  


Kate, the hunter  


Derek, shot with the wolfsbane

Victoria's suicide after getting bitten

Derek killing me

Melissa looks at me. "If Derek killed you in the other timeline, how are you alive?"

I say "I bit Lydia, knowing that an Alpha wolf's bite would trigger her banshee heritage. From the other side, I drove her inside until I could force her into using the Wormwood ritual to resurrect me. My death reset my sanity. I wasn't insane when I came back. I could feel my mate's need for stability and control and tried to use that as my new anchor since I knew he wouldn't accept me because of the things I did when I was insane. He never told anyone I was his mate. Deaton eventually imprisoned me, and Stiles arranged for me to escape as a side note when Scott needed to get Lydia out of Eichen to fight the beast that killed Stiles and all of the pack."

Melissa nods and nervously looks at Stiles. "Going camping is Stiles' code. It means he's gone to the cabin to do a dangerous spell, collect hard to find magical ingredients, fight a supernatural or hunter to save a supernatural that came to him for help. It could also mean he needs to use one of the talents that take a lot of magic and is dangerous to him."

John asks "the cabin? Is that his mother's cottage on the far side of the lake?" Both Stiles and Melissa nod.

Melissa adds "there's a basement that's larger than the above-ground area. It has a magic library and material, illegal magic components, crystals and items that aren't supposed to exist in your world."

John looks up in shock. "Illegal?"

Stiles scoffs and adds "illegal to witches, not law enforcement. I seriously doubt you'd know what wraith essence or banshee dust is and why they're dangerous."

Melissa about gets whiplash as she turns back to him "wraith essence? How the bloody hell did you get that? They outlawed that to every bloody magic user, _**including**_ demons!"

Stiles steps back from her anger and says "You _**REALLY**_ don't want to know! No one can destroy it, and I'm storing it, in a safe place, so no one else can get it." He arches his brow defiantly. "That's one of those things we agreed that you don't want to know."

Melissa says "Wilkksiezycawyc! You need to be more careful."

He nods and helpfully adds "I had an elemental cast such an intense glamour that not even I can see through it. It's safer than safe."

Melissa does a double-take and says "I don't even want to know how you got an elemental to do anything. They don't like mortals."

Stiles says "You _**REALLY REALLY**_ don't want to know that. It's over. I'm in one piece. Everything worked out. In my defense, I had no idea what I was dealing with until they dropped their glamours."

Melissa is thinking, and then she looks at Stiles with a shocked look. _**"THEM?**_ You dealt with _**THEM!** _ Are you insane? Oh wait, let me guess, you were suicidal at the time."

He looks down in embarrassment.

"Crap! Baby, next time you get that way, talk to Danny or me first."

John says "that sounds dreadful but include me on the list of people to talk to if you feel that way." 

We all say to add us to the list.

He smiles sheepishly. I think they forgot we were here when they got into _**that**_ discussion. I still can't believe that Melissa, Stiles, and Danny are witches.

That explains how he got away from Gerard with Erica and Boyd. If they hadn't decided to run away from Beacon Hills, the Alpha Pack would've never caught them.

It also, explains how Melissa knew what to do to take care of Danny with the mistletoe poisoning and why it didn't affect him the way it did Cora.

Stiles stiffens and quickly peeks out the window. I ask "Who is it, Little One? Who's got your attention so quickly?" 


	22. Chris

 

**SATURDAY, January 15th**

  
He says "Chris Argent just parked. He doesn't have a reason to be here, unless it's to check up on you or Derek."

Melissa says "Stiles! Get to the kitchen and don't forget to do an aura glove to protect you from Wolfsbane, just in case one of them decides to touch you with it."

Stiles smiles and says "on my way, and I already adjusted it."

I ask "what's an aura glove?"

She smiles and says "that's where you push your aura to a little above the skin level and make it like a shield so that if poisonous things touch you, it won't hurt you. Like wearing a glove or armor."

Derek arches his brow as he contemplates that. "Can that protect you from fire or ice?"

Melissa says "it doesn't protect from the temperature. The flame wouldn't hurt but the heat of the fire would. It depends on how you define it, but you wouldn't survive walking through fire. I better get to my station. The two of you are safe being in here since you need to check the damage to Peter. Did you need to take pictures?"

John says "no. We have the pictures from the night of the fire and the ER visit that evening."

Melissa rushes to the desk and is on her computer when Chris steps up to her counter.

I hear her say "sorry, I can't tell you if that patient is here or not. Patient privacy. I'm sure you understand. Was there anything else I can help you with?"

When he smiles and says no, she dismisses him and goes back to her computer.

He walks away, but then we hear him coming down the hallway. 

I nod towards the hall to indicate he's coming this way. 

John nods and stands where you can't see him from the closed door. 

Chris will only see Derek sitting next to my bed _**after**_ he walks all the way into my room.

A few minutes later Chris walks in and says "I need to speak with you." He's facing me and quickly realizes Derek is there so adds "Derek" to his sentence.

He notices John when he steps forward and says "Derek opted Peter out of the directory which means they can't tell you if he's here, let alone what room. I had Peter moved to a different room yesterday. Would you like to tell me how you knew what room _**he**_ is in?"

Does Chris know I'm not comatose or merely suspect it?

Chris looks uneasy and nervous. He hasn't got an answer as to how he knew. 

Derek asks "are you following me? Have you somehow got a transmitter on me? Are you paying one of the nurses?" 

We hear the uptick in his heart on that. 

He continues with "did you hack the hospital records?" 

We hear another uptick in his heart.

Derek glares at him as John says "I'm going to have to escort you out of the hospital. You should not be showing up to the room of the victim of a fire your family is alleged to have started. The fact you know where he is, after we took precautions to keep him safe, means we need to put him somewhere else more secure. Do I need to bring you in for stalking and witness intimidation?"

Chris closes the door and says "I need to talk to Derek about the entire situation. I saw Peter's comatose and scarred from the fire as the reports state. I came to see Derek. I need to talk to him and get the story straight out of the horse's mouth, so to speak." He's telling the truth.

John looks at Derek and says "you don't have to tell him anything. You can wait till it goes to court and you face his sister. From the evidence, you shouldn't even have to do that."

Derek nods and says "All I have to say to you, Chris, is your sister seduced me when I was 15. We had sex, and she drugged me. I woke up and found my clothes gone, and our house on fire. I came to Beacon Hills to find my sister because she disappeared, only to find her cut in half and in the morgue. Then the Sheriff here informs me they found evidence that your sister and my sister were mates and planned the entire thing together so they could be together. What I don't understand is if they killed my family to be together, why weren't they together and why keep me alive?"

Chris says "we had an electrical fire a week later, the electrical system shorted out and didn't set off the alarms. There was a carbon monoxide leak in the house. The only reason we survived is I was called out that night to meet a client. When I got home, I saw the fire. I found my wife and daughter unconscious on the living room floor and dragged them out. Now I suspect it was my sister. She was visiting us at the time but went out for coffee, at 3 am. I think if both of our families had died they'd be together."

Derek asks "Kate would kill you and your child? I can understand her wanting to kill the kids in my family, not yours."

Chris says "From the things my daughter said about the way Kate talks about the boys in her classes, I suspected she's a pedophile. I'm sorry she did that to you and your family. My wife and I don't want anything to do with her. If we show her a cold shoulder, she's more of a threat to us because she'll be our enemy. We won't know her location. We decided we'll act as though we aren't aware of anything and keep the Sheriff in the loop."

John looks wary as he says "so what you're saying is, you'll welcome her into _**your**_ house, but you'll report to _**me**_ everything she's planning and where _**she**_ is at all times?"

Chris says "Yes. We'll tell Allison we believe she's a pedophile and to let us know if she does anything inappropriate _**or**_ tries to get around her boyfriend and their school friends."

He turns to Derk and says "I'm sorry for your recent loss. I didn't even know Laura was here _**or**_ about her relationship with Kate. I can't in all good conscience be friends with you, but know this. You and your family are _**not**_ our enemies." He's not lying.

Derek looks surprised as he says "thank you. I suppose that's better than I anticipated from you."

Chris shakes Derek's hand and asks for the Sheriff's cell phone number. He feeds that into his phone and text the sheriff.

John says "the number you texted isn't the number you texted from."

Chris says "that's my wife's cell phone. We always have our phones on us."

John says "thank you."

Stiles arrives with our meal as Chris is leaving. He looks at Stiles. "I know you, don't I?" Something just happened between them, and I'm not sure what it was.

Stiles says "Yeah, I'm Stiles. Scott's friend. I see you before and after school with Allison."

John says "this is my son. **_Is_** there a problem?"


	23. Chris Speaks

**SATURDAY, January 15th**

John says "this is my son. _**Is**_ there a problem?"

Chris says "no. I wasn't aware Stiles works here."

Stiles says "I suck at lacrosse, and since Scott and Allison got together, I don't want to be a third wheel, and I want to be a nurse. Scott intends to be a vet and works at Deaton's office so I thought I'd get nursing experience here to ensure this is the career I want."

Chris says "I find it hard to believe that an avid hunter like Deaton's now a vet. He worked for my father. I'm surprised he didn't say anything to anyone when he saw my sister running around with kids." 

He looks at his watch and says "I better go. I have a few more errands to run for Victoria."

At the door, he turns around and puts his finger to his lips as he asks "Stiles? I noticed, at school, you always over-emphasize your gestures and act clumsily. Here, you don't. Is the act because you're a world champion dancer, possibly gay, and you don't want the kids to know?"

Stiles about gets whiplash as he turns to him. "How did you know that? Not even Scott knows I dance. Yes, I'm gay, which isn't anyone's business."

John asks "champion?"

Chris says "He's such a good dancer that they asked him to stop competing. He's ballet-trained which is why I asked if he's gay. It doesn't mean gay, but can. Danny was his dance partner, and he's hip-hop trained. They held the title for four years when they had to give it up. They called themselves Flex and Pop. I always check out anyone that hangs around my daughter."

Stiles says "I'm impressed. I'd be even more impressed if you noticed the kid always following Allison around with his camera and telephoto lens. The yearbook staff at the school is teachers only. That's why it sucks. He never approaches her, so you might not have seen him. Of course, you always look at the obvious people close up."

 

Chris gets a hard look on his face and smells of surprise. He didn't notice Matt. I wasn't aware Stiles had seen him this early in the game. I didn't even mention who controlled the Kanima since there won't be a Kanima.

Stiles says "I haven't said anything because he hasn't tried to talk to her. He only follows her around. I've been waiting for him to get bored and move on."

Chris asks "what is this kids name so that I can look into it?"

Stiles says "Matt Daehler. He lives near Jackson and Isaac, from the lacrosse team. I suspect that as close as he was to Isacc's older brother, Camden was his mate. He may be a little unstable if that's the case."

Chris says thanks, shakes Stiles hand and leaves.

John closes the door and turns back to us. "Was that an apology and a warning about Deaton? And what was that about not being friends but not your enemy."

Stiles says "he's a sneaky bastard. He had Wolfsbane on his hand when he shook hands with me but not with you. He must have some in his jacket pocket."

I say "You didn't react to it so he must think you're human." I hug him and check his hand to make sure it didn't hurt him. 

I say "I wasn't aware you noticed Matt. None of us saw him in the other time until you mentioned you suspected he was the one controlling the Kanima."

John says "wait. The Kanima? You said not to worry about it, and all of the deaths attributed to him won't happen because Derek can't bite Jackson, so there is no chance of a Kanima. You didn't say someone controlled it. Is there anything else you didn't mention because you believe it's dealt with or we'll take care of it."

I think and say "the dead pool. A banshee was in the ER with me, in the same room. She was also comatose, so heard all the ravings of a mad werewolf filled with pain."

I glance at Stiles as I say "she plans on getting someone to steal my money from the vault to bankroll a dead pool of assassins to kill all supernatural creatures. There is a supercomputer in Lydia's boathouse she uses. In my time she realizes it was the ravings of a madman when I go see her at Eichen House after my scars heal."

I look down as I say "I may also intend to hurt Brunski at Eichen because he abused Stiles when he was in there the first time. Brunski abused him again in the other time when he checks in, so he won't hurt anyone when the Nogitsune possessed him entirely. I'm sure he's abused others before and after. He's also a serial killer. He keeps tapes of his killing as trophies. In my time, your deputy shot him because he was trying to kill Stiles and Lydia as he bragged about killing her grandmother."

John looks furious. He looks at Stiles and asks "He abused you in Eichen House?"

Stiles takes a step back into me in nervousness and fear as he nods. 

Derek growls that Stiles is afraid. I protectively pull him into my chest.

John says "I'm not mad at you, son. I'm mad at Brunski. How bad was it?"

Stiles says "Before I turned and my scars healed, I always wore long sleeves and oversized shirts to hide my scars."

John looks at me and asks "how did the deputy know to get there in time to save Stiles? When he shot Brunski."

I nod and say "he was investigating him and found there were 48 deaths in the last ten years which is over the average and all but two were signed off by Brunski. There were no autopsies on any of the bodies."

John says "I'll have my deputy start checking why their death rate is higher than the average. If I can't get him on the abuse, I'll get him on murder. I'm sorry Stiles. I see you're still afraid of me when I get angry. I want you to know the reason I stopped drinking was that time I threw the bottle of whiskey at you."

I look at him angrily. I never knew about that. Melissa rushes in to protect Stiles from the angry thoughts she senses.

He continues sadly "I should've never said what I did. Being drunk is not an excuse. I realized what I was saying and doing, and it scared me. If I'd throw a bottle at you or say those things, I could do worse. I vowed never to let myself get drunk again because you're too important to me. I should've apologized instead of acted like it never happened. I'm also very sorry I ever put you in that place."

He inhales raggedly and looks down as he says "I can't use the excuse that I was trying to help you. I drunkenly thought I could drink as much as I wanted if you weren't there. I saw you regressing while you were there and saw it was worse for you."

He pulls Stiles into a fierce bear hug. "I need to look after you like you always looked after me. I'm the adult, and I should've never made you feel like you needed to be an adult because I fucked up at it." 

Those are the words that make Stiles finally cry as he grips his dad tightly.

He looks at us and says "I'm glad I can depend on both of you to keep my boy safe."

I nod. 

Derek says "we're Pack." To him, that's the ultimate reason.

After a few minutes, I say "the Deputy you had then? He isn't here yet. Jordan Parrish, a hellhound. Lydia's mate."  
  
John says "I'll pull up his application. That mushy food looks horrible. You have to be determined to eat that."

Stiles runs his hand over it and reveals baked salmon with honey dijon. "He eats a regular meal at supper during the week, and lunch on Saturday, when I serve them. Him and Derek."

We both take the fish and don't bother with the plate or silverware as we wolf it down. John and Melissa laugh at the display.

I lick my fingers and say "breakfast is pureed eggs and soupy cream of wheat. Lunch is what that looked like, but his suppers are heaven. He's a better cook than Talia claimed to be."

Derek says "yea. She claimed she was the best cook in all of Southern California."

Stiles looks out the door and cautiously ask "mom, do you have the earpiece you spelled to listen in on what the nurses say at the front desk?"

She reaches into her pocket and says "yes."

He nods and says "turn it on, and I need everyone to stay here and listen. Don't interfere."

He then walks out the door.


	24. Theories

**SATURDAY, January 15th**  

Stiles walks out to the nurse's station and acts like he's going to make a call when Chris reaches out, grabs him, and pulls him around the corner.

Chris says "your an empath."

Stiles snort and says "it takes on to know one."

Chris says "what?"

Stiles looks at him. "You don't know what you are? Let me enlighten you, hunter. Your witch blood gives you the empathy. That means your sister is the telepath, which is why you can't read her. I felt you and blocked myself. That means Allison, your daughter; her ability woke up in puberty. You didn't notice anything, so she's not an empath or telepath. I think Gerard is the seer and Allison possibly has telekinesis which is how she always hits her archery target without trying. I guess that none of you know about your witch blood so one of your ancestors was killed before they could pass on that knowledge on to their kids."

He scoffs. "Witches? Are you insane?"

Stiles huffs and says "fine." He says something in a vibrating voice, and we hear Chris grunt.

Stiles says "that was an immobilizing spell. You can't move until I release it. Witches exist and are everywhere. _**You**_ prove that not all witches _**know**_ what they are."

Chris grunts "okay. You. Made. Your. Point. Now. Let. Me. Go."

Stiles says "not yet. Chris, I know you studied your ancestors. Did anyone die young with an infant or toddler that they took away from the family?"

He thinks for a few minutes and says "in the 1800s. Marilyn Chapman. They burned her at the stake because she saw her husband die in another town. They said she was a witch. They said her children were too young to be corrupted, so they were taken in by the church."

Stiles says "I've heard of her. Her mother was a powerful empath. Her Grandmother was a powerful Seer. You need to find a witch to help Allison. Telekinesis evolves sometime between the age of 35 and 40 into pyrokinesis. If there's no one to help her control it, she could hurt a lot of people." 

He removes the paralysis from Chris and continues. "As you've no doubt noticed, empathy evolves. There are different paths that it can go down. Dream Scaping, telepathy, cryokinesis, or a more powerful form of empathy called hyper-empathy that can not only sense others emotions but take them and even change what they are feeling. You're a dream scaper. It's been a while since one of those has cropped up."

Chris asks "how do you know the answers to the questions? I haven't asked them."

Stiles casually says "I've been on my own for a long time. I have my Aunt as emotional support and protection. I would have gone insane without her. I have done so much stuff with magic and my abilities that my abilities have already evolved." 

He steps back from Chris as he says "I'm a hyper empath. I can see the pictures that your emotions make. Being stuck in Eichen House with all of those powerful emotions, it did things to me. I tried to hide inside myself. The abuse pulled me out, and I had to find other ways to shield myself."

He sneers "those doctors think that putting mountain ash in the walls and foundations protects them from all supernatural things and they can experiment on all the patients in safety. That only affect Druids and werewolves and those with dark intent. It does nothing to witches or those trying to protect, even if their method of protection is to kill."

Chris asks "can you teach us or me how to control it? How to not use it? How to be normal?"

Stiles says "I can or some of the others in town can. Being normal is overrated, and it's never going to happen. To teach an outsider, I'd have to ask my group's elder. You'd need any information you can provide to show that you and your bloodline don't know what you are or what you can do. They will test you and then teach you to control what you have."

Chris asks "would I be able to cast a spell as you did?"

Stiles chuckles. "Anyone of witch blood can cast a spell. The more difficult the spell, the more training and magic you need to have or the more witches you need to cast it. Is that what you want? To be a witch?"

He says "no. I would want to control my abilities. Allison needs testing as well. Are you sure Kate's a telepath?"

Stiles says "that's the way bloodlines work. That explains how she got in Derek's head to seduce him. Do you feel Gerard's emotions?"

He says "yes. I never felt Kate's though."

Stiles says "that proves she's the telepath. Telepaths and empaths can't read each other. If you didn't know what you are, then I doubt she knows."

Chris says "I better go and do some researching. I'll call your dad when I find the background I need." 

Chris leaves, and Stiles leans against the wall and catches his breath before walking back to my room.

 

 

Melissa says "that explains a few things about your abilities."

Stiles nods nervously and says "that explain how the bitch got Derek confused enough to seduce him."

John says "now I feel even worse about Eichen."

I say "that brings up a question. Morrell works at Eichen, but she's a druid. You said the ash works on druids. How does she work there if she's a druid."

Stiles says "if a demon possesses her, or she doesn't go in the sublevels where they keep the non-humans."

Derek asks "demon? Like the Nogitsune? Peter, did you see her after it posses Stiles in the other time?"

I scratch my head. "Now that you mention it, no I didn't. She just disappeared. She was simply replaced at both the school and the asylum."

John says "so it's possible that she's the Nogitsune? That means she could be using magic at the school? Why is she at the school?"

Stiles says "maybe she's trying to track down the Kitsune that imprisoned it under the Nemeton. Demons are neither male or female. It could be anyone. How do we know she's Deaton's sister? Deaton and Morrell aren't similar, and she's not married. Deaton means Druid. Marin means sadness and Morrell mean black or darkness."

I say "we never discovered how or when it was released from the roots of the Nemeton. It's possible."

Stiles says "I know a couple of hunters, brothers, which I can anonymously tip-off about Eichen House. One of them has demon blood. He will immediately sense if she's a demon. They could clean out the killers and demons infesting that place."

John says "that place needs to be cleaned out. Send the message."

Stiles nods.

Derek says "so about Chris Argent ..."

 


	25. How to get Peter out of the Hospital

**SATURDAY, January 15th**   

 

Back to our discussion about Chris.

John asks "why did Chris say he can't be friends with you?" 

I look at Derek and then back at John. "That was his way of saying they don't sanction Kate's actions and it's more about her going after kids than our family. Chris isn't aware you know about us, and that's how humans react. He's saying we aren't a threat and _**his**_ hunters won't hunt Derek. That doesn't mean _**her's**_ won't. If Chris feeds you information about Kate's actions and locations, it'll be a great help to us."

Stiles says "I'll call in a private investigator to find her and then follow her. A nonhuman one that owes me a favor. Once he gets her scent, he won't lose her, unless she swims in chlorine or pours bleach on herself."

John asks "is that how you knew he was outside. You smelled his scent?"

Stiles looks at him and carefully says "Chris always smells of gun oil, Wolfsbane, and Chantilly Lace from Victoria and Ghost Myst from Allyson. He also has bradycardia, which means his heartbeat is slower than most and he has a heart murmur in the lower left ventricle. I got in the habit, at school, of always knowing where he and his wife are, at all times. They're a threat, and I don't want to be surprised by them." 

He nervously toes the ground. "Besides. Victoria's scary." 

I laugh and says "She is that. She's the head or the leader of their hunter clan while Chris is the soldier."

Stiles then takes the dirty dishes to the kitchen. John goes back to the station to process Derek's statement, and Melissa goes back to work.

 

 

**SEVERAL HOURS LATER**

Stiles comes, and he's on the phone with his dad "I have an idea to get Peter in a safer place without being in a more secure location. I have someone that'll meet us at our house tonight, at 10 pm. Please be there because I need you to sign off on this. It's one of my _'it's so crazy, it just might work'_ ideas."

He hangs up and says "I'll explain everything tonight."

I say "I don't like the idea of you meeting someone at your house, possibly alone."

He smiles at me and says "don't worry. I'll have Derek with me while we await your arrival. You'll either love it or hate it. I hope you love it. Try to trust me on this. I'll leave some clothes for you to wear in the garage, so dad and Melissa don't see you naked. Please don't let them see you naked with me!"

I say "Trust me. That's the last thing I would let John or Melissa see. They would shoot me with Wolfsbane. Your _'it's so crazy it might just work'_ ideas usually work because it's something no one would ever expect.

I ensure that I arrive at Stiles' home by 9:30 pm. 

I walk in the door and immediately smell Derek in shock. I walk into the kitchen where I hear everyone at, only to find Derek and Melissa in shock sitting at the table staring at a stranger drinking coffee. His back is to me, and he doesn't appear to be a threat.

Stiles looks up at me and smiles. I'm glad you made it here so quickly. Dad's not here yet. 

He gestures to the stranger and says "Peter, this Ian Bohen. An actor. I thought since he looks so much like you, that he can pretend to be you." 

When he turns around, my jaw hits the floor in total surprise. How is this possible. I don't smell magick. Is this a mirror image of me as a human? It's like I'm seeing myself with shorter hair and no scars, calmly sitting at the table drinking coffee. He does have a good body for a human.

Ian gets up and gently touches my scars as he looks at them. He takes a couple of Polaroids of my face and opens a makeup kit I hadn't noticed. He goes to work duplicating my scars. The man should get a job in special effects. When he finishes, he looks exactly like me, only with shorter hair.

I sit down slowly in the chair and stare at him in shock. I'm pretty sure my mouth is open in a permanent O shape. 

I must look like a fish out of water because I hear Melissa chuckle. When I finally get over my surprise enough to speak, I say "Oh my God! You look like my mirror image, except for the hair. I know I don't have a twin. How is this possible."

Ian says "Hair's hard to duplicate. We'll merely tell people that Derek got your haircut so you'd look more like the uncle he remembers."

That's when John walks in, sees the two of us and stops dead in his tracks. "Jesus Christ! What's going on?"

Melissa says "language."

I chuckle as John puts a hand over his mouth and says "sorry. How is this possible?"

I smirk and say "see, I'm not the only one that has that question. Stiles? How ..." I gesture between myself and Ian "I don't understand."

Stiles nervously runs his hand through his hair as he says "I hired an actor that _**looks**_ like Peter to _**pretend**_ to be Peter." 

He looks at John hopefully. "I figured you could maybe move Peter to a different floor and Melissa could maybe get assigned as his only nurse because maybe Derek doesn't trust anyone right now."

Stiles drops into his chair, and I smell his disappointment as he waits for his dad to say no. I think this is a stupendous idea. I wish I had thought of this.

Stiles nervously fidgets as he continues. "Ian would only have to play comatose if someone went to visit him. He wants and needs seclusion right now for studying a role he's trying to get on a TV series called _ **The Vampire Diaries**_. He wants to play Tyler's older brother. The part is only in season 1, but I think he can get it. Did I mention the character he's going for is a _**werewolf?**_ "

Both Derek and I hide our smirks at that comment.

John studies Ian's face and notes the makeup kit.  "You're an actor? You obviously can do your makeup yourself! Do you have any problem being cooped up in a small hospital room for a month or two?"

Ian smiles in contentment. "No problem whatsoever. I would prefer it. Pretending to be a comatose patient is a role that gives me a chance to study while I earn a paycheck, as long as this job lasts three months or less. My audition is in four months. This position is perfect. We do look enough alike for most people not to notice the difference."  
  
Derek says "hell, I'm his nephew and I wouldn't know the difference."

John holds out his hand in an offered handshake and says "I'm hiring you! I can arrange the move to another floor tonight unless that's too soon?" he looks into Ian's eyes for confirmation.

Ian says "that's fine. I have the books and scripts to study in this suitcase, and the little case is my makeup. I should have enough makeup to last, but if not, I can send one of you to get what I need."

 

 

Ian and Melissa go to the hospital to sneak him into my room, and I go back to the hospital the way I came. 

Thank God John arrested Nurse Jennifer yesterday, or this could be a little hairy!

 

I'm in my chair, impatiently waiting for close to an hour when Melissa and Ian finally step into my room. 

I breathe a sigh of relief, switch clothes with him, and watch as he gets into my wheelchair.

I hide in the bathroom before John walks in with two deputies and two aides. 

Melissa takes one of his bags as John grabs the other. They then wheel him to the top floor and put him in 627. I use my phone to take a picture of the painting I want Derek to buy and send it to him with 'want to buy this.' I then climb out the window and run back to Stiles' house.

At his home, I pick him up and pull him into a tight hug, cradling his head. "That was a brilliant idea. People _**do**_ use body doubles. How did you get this idea?"

 

 

He smiles as he snuffles my neck and says "I watched _CSI_. Triplets shared their husband, but no one new. One of them killed the man and then they discovered it was an actor he hired that looked like him. Later I saw this old show on Netflix called _Boy Meets World_ and saw that Ian Bohen looks a lot like you. I checked, and he's a little older than you are. I contacted his agent and got a current photo, and it seemed to click. You like my idea?"

I smile into his neck "I love it. I now have complete freedom and don't have to stay in that damnable wheelchair playing Statue! That gets old and tiresome quickly. Now I can heal these burn scars." 

I concentrate and let my body fully recover just as John walks in to see the impressive display, _**if**_ I do say so myself, and I _**do**_.

 

John and Melissa walk in, and he says "Wow. You can heal that quickly?"

I just look at him with a "duh!" look.

Melissa says "you're in room 627. Derek still needs to visit you there to keep up pretenses."

John says "Now. Derek, Peter, and Stiles." He holds up a pair of keys that he tosses to me. "This is a duplicate of Nurse Jennifer's house and car key. I won't be able to get a warrant to search them until tomorrow morning, when the judge gets in."

 


	26. Investigating Nurse Jennifer

###  **SATURDAY, January 15th**   

John says "Now. Derek, Peter, and Stiles." He holds up a pair of keys that he tosses to me. "This is a duplicate of Nurse Jennifer's house and car key. I won't be able to get a warrant to search them until tomorrow morning when the judge gets in."

 

I smile evilly and ask "you want us to ensure evidence pointing you at the Argents is readily viewable, but there's nothing to link werewolves to it?"  
  
John smiles and says "exactly! Stiles? You can use your telekines to open any lock?"  
  
Stiles blushes guiltily, nervously toes the floor and says "it's called telekinesis. As long as I concentrate and don't get scared, nervous or rushed, I can do it. It takes focus. It's easier as a werewolf."  
  
John says "then you should have no problems getting into anything. Wear gloves, so you don't leave fingerprints."

We all nod as we head out the door. Halfway to Derek's car, I stop and ask "um. We should get her address. I'll ask him what it is."

I turn to go back, and Stiles says "4242 North Bluejay Lane."

Derek and I look intently at him. Derek asks "why do you know her address?"

Stiles says "always know your enemy."

 

 

  
At Jennifer's, we search her car and find nothing. We check her house and find a stash of wolfsbane and monkshood.

We locate the mountain ash and a picture of her with Gerard hidden in a book.

We leave the book open on the coffee table, so they find it quickly. On the back, she wrote With Gerard Argent while hunting the Garcia boy. Cloudcroft, New Mexico. Summer 2008. There are some pictures of her, Deaton and a few other faces I recognize as Argent hunters together.

  
Stiles says a reveal spell and looks around. He spots a false panel on the wall. We open it and find more pictures. There is one of Kate, Gerard and Deaton together dated January 20th, 2005. That was before the fire.  
  
  
  
There's a medical file on Gerard. It states he has cancer and looking for any cure, legal or not.  
  
There's a copy of my medical records, with the financials, showing Stiles and Derek have been paying the bills. There's a sticky note saying 'the boy could be a means to control Peter when he awakens. There has to be a reason he's paying the bill.' We put those back, but leave the panel skewed, so the cops see it.  
  
In the kitchen, Stiles opens the freezer, and I ask "what are you doing?"

He says "sometimes people hide things in their freezer. They wrap them in aluminum foil to protect them."  
  
He finds a packet and carefully opens it. Inside is a copy of the report of the deer with a spiral. A copy of a letter asking Deaton to locate Laura's email so they can send her the fake web article of the deer. There's his response to her message with the email address.  
  
She wants to cover herself with her dealings with him. There's also a copy of a letter from Deaton dated December 2004. It says Deucalion wants peace so bad he'll go to the meeting alone at the Foundry with Gerard. He trusts Gerard will be alone as well.  
  
There's a copy of the receipt for the Pike Gerard special ordered in December of 2004.  
  
There's a copy of the letter from Gerard telling Deaton that Deucalion was blinded with flash arrows, with silver in it. Leave the silver inside the wounds so they don't heal and point out to his second that a blind man can't lead their group.  
  
There's a stack of files. Closer inspection shows it's the copies of life insurance policies on the hunters. Some have sticky notes indicating when Gerard killed them and where. Ten of them were at the Foundry.

  
Stiles asks "do we leave this or take it?"  
  
I call John and tell him about all of the evidence against Gerard and Deaton staging the death of the hunters and framing werewolves and the life insurance policies.  
  
He says "take the evidence against Deaton, and I'll put it in my office for Chris to find the next time he searches it. Leave the evidence of Gerard staging the death of his hunters, blaming wolves, profiting from their death, and Jenn suggested they go after a human kid to get to you."  
  
I hang up and look at Stiles. I have to know. "They don't know why you'd be important to me. Why did you pay my bills? We didn't know we were mates until after I woke up."  
  
He shuffles a little and runs his hand through his hair nervously as he says "mom told me she felt you're important to me and I need to protect you while you can't protect yourself. The day before she died, she was herself again. She said it was your wolf I was seeking to calm myself when she was abusive. I thought she meant a pet or spirit, not that you're a werewolf."  
  
He ducks his head as he continues "we recognized something in the other, but we didn't know what. Dad put me in Eichen House because I tried to take mom's medicine so I wouldn't wake up anymore. I wanted to stay in my dreams, with your wolf. I wasn't trying to kill myself. I didn't want to wake up anymore."  
  
I pull him into a warm hug and kiss his forehead as I ask "the reason the painting in my room has my wolf in it is, you saw and felt my wolf while I was in a coma. The reason he ran the preserve, wasn't to find an Alpha, but to locate you. Your scent was thick in the area I awoke in. Is that where you gather your herbs?"  
  
Stiles says "yes and no. I also spend a lot of time there, away from people. My empathy made being around people painful. What would your wolf have done if he found me."  
  
I say "I'm afraid to say he'd see you as ours and **_n_** _ **eeded**_ a pack. He would've forcefully turned you to heal us with our pack bonds, making us stronger. I'm glad he didn't find you. I don't think I could bear forcing myself on you or you hating me because he did." I take him back in my arms and snuffle at his neck.  
  
Derek says "Luckily that didn't happen. You found Laura and got an Alpha's power to heal you. And a sane or semi-sane Peter was able to _**ask**_ Stiles to join our pack."  
  
I point to a picture of an old barn and ask "what is this?"  
  
Stiles looks and says "that's an old barn that I inherited from my mother. That's where I paint. The basement is where a few of us witches meet."  
  
I take that picture and say "that's information they don't need, and I'm taking it to protect you." Under it was a picture of Stiles with a beautiful black woman. Roxy. I hold this up and say "neither do they need this. We should go."  
  
  
  
  
  
Back at Stiles' house, I go to follow him upstairs when his dad stops me. "Where are you going?"  
  
I say "I'm not going to do anything. I want to cuddle with Stiles for a short while. As tired as he is, he'll be asleep in less than half an hour, and then I'll go to Derek's room and split the bed with him."  
  
John lets me go and says "I'm holding you to that, Peter."  
  
I smile and say "I expect you to, John."  
  
I wait on the bed for Stiles to take his shower, and then we cuddle in bed. I kiss his forehead and let him curl up on my shoulder as we turn to face each other, and I hold him in my arms. He buries his nose under my chin and is soon fast asleep. I embrace him for another ten minutes before I slide out of bed and tuck him in.  
  
I climb into Derek's bed, and he insists on me being on the edge since I'm the Alpha. I can't wait to sleep in a real bed and not a hospital bed, even if it's just half of a bed shared with my grumpy nephew.


	27. Talk with the Sheriff

**Sunday,**  
**January 16th, 2011**  
  
I'm staying at Stiles' house. I make breakfast early this morning as John, and I quietly talk in the kitchen over coffee. Mostly about my relationship goals with Stiles and how mates work for werewolves.

  
  
He then asks me how lycanthropes function and the general differences between bitten, born, and humans.  
  
Stiles birthday is coming up, and I plan to claim my mate then. John won't interfere IF that's what he wants. He wants to ascertain Stiles wants it also.  
  
I smile at John, and he drinks his coffee before he says "I don't want to hear you two having sex. If you don't mind!"  
  
I say "I'll respect your privacy." I hear Stiles wake up and I comment "he just woke up and should be down soon."  
  
A few minutes later, Stiles stumbles in and goes straight to the coffee pot. As he's sipping his coffee, he sees John eating bacon and says "dad you need to watch your cholesterol. Bacon is a no-no."  
  
John mutters "only if I stay human."

  
  
Stiles side-eyes him intently, and I hide my surprise with sipping my coffee. That _**is**_ a new development.  
  
I smile and say "it's Turkey Bacon, Little One. Get a plate before it gets cold."  
  
When we sit down to eat John asks Stiles "I was talking to Peter about werewolf mates. Do you _**want**_ him to claim you as _**his**_ mate on your 16th birthday? It sounds even more permanent than marriage does."  
  
Stiles says "yeah dad. I want to be with Peter, always. I'm aware there's no reversing or do-overs. He makes me happy. He thinks about me, and I'm not just an afterthought. He chose me, not just settled for me until something better comes along."  
  
He quietly and sadly adds "like some people out there."  
  
I can't help but say "like Scott?"

  
  
He shrugs as he continues to look down as he says "yeah like Scott. I didn't think it'd hurt this much. I mean, I'm happy he found Allison, but treating me like I'm invisible and proving I don't matter, that hurts."  
  
I hug him and say "your pack is here for you. I'm here for you. Let me know if there's anything I can do for you." I kiss his forehead as he looks up with a grateful smile.  
  
He looks at his dad and says "don't worry dad. You won't hear us. I know a soundproofing spell. I also know one that allows the hearing of just the heartbeat of the one inside. I use it when I'm working with supernaturals that panic if they can't hear my heartbeat."  
  
John mulls over what he wants to ask. He's carefully trying to word his thoughts, and we wait patiently for him. He finally asks "that _**little**_ conversation you had with Melissa yesterday? When she said 'them,' what was she referring to?"  
  
Stiles looks nervous as he says "vampires. We aren't supposed to deal with them. The elders have no problem with us working with zombies, demons, and incubi, which are worse. They only get their panties in a twist when they hear vampires. They aren't all bad. Not all predators are killers."  


  
I look at him in shock. "They exist?"  
  
Stiles says "yeah, and everything you read about their weaknesses is bullshit that they spread to make humans think they're safe from them. Heck most of them live in or around a church. The only thing with any truth to it is welcoming them into your home, in a way. They can still come in, but can't use their powers inside, _**unless**_ you invite them. There are ways to revoke an invitation that they don't like people to know about as well."  
  
John looks at me and asks "you didn't know vampires are real?"  
  
I say "no. I thought it was stories to keep children in at night and close to the house."

 

  
  
  
**AFTER BREAKFAST**  
Stiles and I are on the couch, cuddling, as he studies for something that looks too advanced for high school. "That can't be high school work. What is that?"  
  
  
  
Stiles says "it's not. I already took Anatomy, Chemistry, Latin, Spanish, and Medical Terminology at the community college. Now I'm taking Microbiology."  
  
I look at him in shock. How are you taking college classes while going to high school? How is that possible?"  
  
"Harris is an ass and always accuses me of cheating, so I took the exit exam as a freshman. I've been taking one class at a time at the community college so I can get the prereqs out of the way before I try to get a scholarship for nursing. Don't tell dad. I don't want him trying to kill himself, overworking, to help pay for my schooling. I have my High School Diploma in the attic, in my family book."  
  
I ask "When do you have time to do that?"  
  
Stiles says "Tuesday and Thursdays. My last class ends at 9:30 am, and I take my college class until 3:30 pm."  
  
Okay, the boy is a super genius if he started taking college classes as a freshman and he's a year younger than everyone in his grade. I ask casually "would you hold it against me if I offer to pay for my mate to go to school? Strictly in a selfish way! Having a nurse in the pack is always a good thing."  
  
Stiles pops his head up, looks at me to figure out my intentions, then jumps in my lap, locks his arms around my neck, tucks his head under my chin, and squeezes me.  
  
Good thing I'm a wolf or that might have hurt.  
  
I hug him back. After a minute he says "I won't hold it against you at all. Just don't tell dad about tuition or anything, well, unless he finds out somehow."  
  
I smile, kiss his cheek, and say "of course not. I wouldn't dream of it."  
  
Stiles gets a text from Melissa saying Scott's on his way over.  
He gets up and puts his college school-books on a hidden shelf in the closet. I see the cupboard and open it. I notice four larger trophies and about 20 smaller ones.  
  
Stiles does his nervous hand through the hair and his jittery foot shuffle, that are so endearing, before saying. "Those are for the county, state, and national dance championships. The big ones are for The World of Dance Competitions."  
  
When we hear Scott in the drive, I give Stiles a proper kiss and head to the attic where Scott won't see or hear me. I get comfortable in a corner on some old blankets that smell of Stiles.

 

  
  
**AN HOUR LATER**  
Scott's telling Stiles about his date with Allison for the fourth time when Stiles _ **finally**_ interrupts him to ask "so Scott, is your essay ready to turn in tomorrow?"  
  
Scott asks in a panicked voice "Essay? What essay?"

  
  
Stiles calmly says "Cyrano De Bergerac. Have you at least read the book?"  
  
A panicked Scott says "No! I forgot all about it! Can I look at yours? Unless you turned it in already." I hear him mutter "you already turned it in, didn't you?"  
  
Stiles says "Sorry buddy. You had a month to read it. Did you at least get a copy of the book?"  
  
Scott's all but crying when he says "no!"  
  
Stiles calmly says "Allison is in our English class. Call her up and ask if she has a copy of the book. Maybe she can help you go over it."  
  
Scott sounds relieved when he says "thanks for the idea." He calls up Allison and asks her.  
  
She did hers last week and can help him go over the book _**and**_ write the essay. He runs out of the door, hops on his bike, and rushes to the Argent's house.  
  
I walk down to Stiles' room as he finishes texting Melissa that Scott's going to the Argents to work on his English essay that's due tomorrow.

I say "that's ingenious. You didn't tell Scott to shut up already, but you found something you knew would get him out of your hair for the rest of the day. It even helps him out. You threw him at Allison to get it done. Your sneakiness rivals my own, and no one realizes you have an ulterior motive because it's doing them a favor."

  
  
He nods and ducks his head.  He looks up through his bangs if he had any. "Not everyone wants to gloat at how easily they can manipulate people. I'd rather do it from the background, where it won't blow up on me later."  
  
I laugh and say "very true and brilliantly done." I pin him against the wall as I kiss him senseless. I look him in the eyes as I say "you are such a treasure. You realize I won't ever let you go!"  
  
Stiles breathes out "I don't want you to."


	28. Chris Finds Clues

**Sunday,**  
**January 16th, 2011**  
  
**LATER IN THE DAY**  
Stiles makes us a big meal and brings a plate to the station for his dad. Spicy Tomato Garlic Shrimp with Spaghetti Squash.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
When he gets back, he pulls us into the living room and says "Chris was in dad's office when I arrived. He already searched it and saw dad's report about everything they found in Jennifer's house. When he asked dad about the evidence on Gerard, that gave him an opening to ask him why Gerard would go after an innocent 16-year-old kid and demanded to know just how long they've been watching me. Dad was seriously mad when he confronted Chris about it."  
  
Derek says "how did he take all of the evidence against Gerard?"  
  
Stiles says "he was pissed Gerard killed _**his**_ men and _**profited**_ from the life insurance policies that _**he**_ bought on _**his**_ men. Chris just found out that Deaton is in the morgue as a possible suicide."

I say "I bet that was a surprise he didn't see coming."

Stiles nods. "Dad went on to ask Chris about the Foundry, but that was obviously a _**dead**_ end. I think Chris checked Deaton's records on it. The ones we took were missing, but all of his supply files about who he's selling wolfsbane to and the quantities sold were still there. The file on Gerard was still there, and it shows he ordered Deaton to persuade Deucalion's second Lieutenant that their leader can't be blind or other groups will attack for their land. Having a blind leader also opened them up to all hunters for an open season on their pack."  
  
I have to ask because I need to know how much of a threat they are to Stiles. "What did Chris say about his family's men following you?"  
  
He sighs and ruffles his hair in agitation. "Chris says that he didn't know they were targeting innocent kids. He had nothing to do with that, and it wasn't a sanctioned action. All illusions that dad and I don't know about werewolves is gone. Lucky us, he thinks I'm just a witch."

Derek ask "what does that mean for you and your dad?"

He says "dad's human, and I'm a human witch. I mean if Chris can be a human witch and not know it, is possible that witches are humans."

I say "that still doesn't tell us what your standing is with Chris and Victoria."

Stiles swallows and looks down. "Chris and Victoria will ensure they pass the information on to all of his contacts that Gerard has gone around the bend. It's not okay to target kids, especially human kids, definitely not the Sheriff's son. They aren't bringing up that I'm a witch because that would make it hard for him and Allison to get tested and trained in using their abilities."

Derek says "you mentioned that you have to ask the elder of your group. Is that Melissa?"

Stiles gives a sideways smile as he shakes his head. "Unfortunately not. It's my Uncle, and I'm not sure if he's adopted or blood. Alexi. He's connected to the Russian mafia, and he's not a man that you want to cross or even think about lying to, about anything."

I smile. "That explains why Alexi always gave you anything you asked for in the other time, up to, and including, lending you a black TransAm that looked enough like Derek's car to lead the hunters off. Is that where you learned to drive the way you do?"

He smiles. "The fact that you've seen me go to Alexi means you were stalking me in the other timeline. Outsiders don't know about him, as a rule. He trained me in driving, fighting, and sniping."

Both Derek and I look at him with new respect. Sniping? He must have been the one that shot the assassin that went after me to get at Derek.

Derek asks "what did Chris have to say about Gerard?"

I say "He had to have figured out Gerard is dying and wants to be an Alpha werewolf to survive. He's using his children (both Kate and Chris) as pawns to get what he wants without any regard for their well being. It looks like he doesn't care about them at all. It's obvious that he's brainwashed Kate to do his dirty work for him."

  
  
Stiles continues "Dad asked Chris how much danger he thought I might be in because of Kate. Chris says I shouldn't be in any danger. The fact that Derek took over paying your bills took me out of the equation. He thinks, but he's not entirely sure. There might be some curiosity, but it's not something that they'd waste resources to pursue."  
  
Derek says "unless it's personal or revenge based. Kate's going to see us as the targets that got away and go out of her way to take us out so as not to sully her reputation."

I nod. "I have to agree with Derek on that. In my time she told Allison that you don't have to be psychotic to be a killer. And if you live with monsters, you need to be put down like monsters."

I look at Stiles. "I love how you told them that not all the monsters are monstrous. Perhaps Beauty was the Beast."

Stiles nods "that does sound like me. Of course, in my world, I was always referred to as the monster."

I angrily ask "was that your mother that said that when she was dying?"

He nods, and I shake my head. "Your mother was half insane because of the poisons. She wasn't aware of what she was saying or doing. You aren't a monster."

He scoffs. "You only say that because you haven't seen what I can do when I'm not playing the innocent human. Danny's seen me when I fought off hunters a few years ago. The only reason my eyes were gold and not blue is that I used their emotions to make them kill themselves and each other. I didn't have to make the kill to protect myself and those kids."

I say "that's not what makes someone a monster. Kate is a monster because she enjoys killing innocent kids. She wants to fuck up their heads and their innocence before she does it. You'd never do that. You always protect the weaker; you even protected Jackson. I don't think I, or most people, could ever do that."

Derek says "you're not a monster by any means. I thought I was responsible for killing my family. I saw myself as a killer, not a monster, but a killer. Killing to protect isn't cold-blooded murder. It's justified."

I add "that's actually where the term justifiable homicide comes from, Little One. Trust us. You're not evil or a monster. Whatever your mother told you was the ravings of a poison-induced insanity. She didn't mean any of what she said to you. Melissa tried to tell you that Claudia was insane and didn't mean it."

Stiles nods and wipes away a couple of tears. "I'll try to keep that in mind. I've been the Frankenstein monster for so long that I can't just drop that perception."


	29. Scott is Self Centered

  
**Monday**  
**17 January 2011**  
  
Last time around, this is the day Scott dislocated Jackson's shoulder, and Derek threatened Scott about playing in the game on Saturday.  
  
  
  
I'm a _**little**_ put out that Stiles is still working at the hospital, but that's a career he wants, and I _**need**_ him to be happy.  
  


 

  
  
**After school**  
There's a loud banging at the front door. I hide upstairs as usual as Derek heads down to deal with the interloper.  
  
Derek sighs in irritation before he answers the door to a loudly banging Scott.

Scott's pissed that Stiles wasn't at practice to see the glorious Scott McCall make the first line. It helps that half the team got pink eye from Greenberg. You can't tell him that, though, or that it's only a temporary position, until the others recover from it. I may have stalked Stiles at school to ensure no one messed with him and to see how well my wolf adjusted to Scott's status the first time around.  
  
  
  
Derek says "Is there some reason that you're banging on _ **our**_ door like a madman? Is there something _ **I**_ can help you with?"

I sneak down to the head of the stairs but stay in the shadows. I want to witness when Derek loses his last nerve and puts the pup through the wall. To tell the truth, I'm surprised that he hasn't done it already. He must have been working on his anger management issues while he was in New York.  
  
I smirk as I see Scott is thrown for a loop that Derek made himself at home.

Derek raises an eyebrow in disbelief at the gall of the kid. I chuckle to myself. Stiles is right. Derek does talk with his eyebrows.

Scott stammers "Where _**is**_ Stiles? What do you mean _**our**_ door? It's _**Stiles'**_ door! He missed practice and didn't see _**me**_ make the _**first line**_ , and I knew he wouldn't want me to leave him out of _**congratulating**_ me, so I can over to give _ **him**_ the chance to make it up to _**me**_."

Derek crosses his arms in irritation which is a feat in itself with the size and muscular nature of his arms and chest. His voice has gotten a little growly as he bites out "I live here, with Stiles. I take it that you're looking for him for purely selfish reasons, Cuzco."

He stammers "Scott. My name is Scott. I'm sure Stiles has told you all about me."

I chuckle that Scott doesn't catch the reference. "Stiles isn't here. I can't say that he's mentioned you. Can I take a message for when you calm down, or he comes home? Whichever comes first?"  
  
Scott dumbly whines "but... he's _**always**_ here when he's _**not**_ at school. Where else could he be since his life _**revolves**_ around school and _**me**_."

I growl in anger, subvocally.

Derek is now very pissed and going to put the kid in his place. "You obviously can't see the nose on your face, Gaston."

He says "Scott, my name's Scott. It's not that hard. What _**are**_ you talking about?"

Derek snorts. "I hate to tell you this, Buzz Lightyear. Stiles _**hates**_ lacrosse and quite _**weeks**_ ago."

He says "my name is Scott."

Derek continues as though he wasn't interrupted "In case you didn't notice, Kronk, oh wait, you don't notice anything unless it centers on you. You are _**not**_ the center of the universe. When _**you**_ dumped _**my**_ friend Stiles for _ **your**_ girlfriend, he decided you wouldn't notice if he quit waiting around as your manservant and decided to live his own life, _**without**_ you. He's not here because he has a job. A job that he loves in the medical field. He won't be home for several hours. If that's all you want, you can leave, _**now!**_ "

  
  
Scott stares at him in shock. "It's Scott. What? I didn't ... I did! Crap!"  
  
  
  
Derek turns to step back into the house and close the door, but Scott puts his hand and foot in the way, making Derek sigh in frustration. "What now?"  
  
Scott confusedly asks "work? How can he have a job? He's only 16. His dad has a good job. Where does he work and why?"  
  
Derek valiantly keeps his eyes from glowing as he glares with his eyebrows. " _ **15**_ , not 16. He's working to improve his chances of getting a scholarship. With a mind like his, he shouldn't have any problems getting one. He also hopes to raise his chances of getting into a good college. He works at the hospital _**with**_ your mom, and he _**won't**_ get off until _**after**_ 9 pm. You can either call him then or wait until tomorrow at school. Better yet, wait until tomorrow. He's going to be tired."  
  
Scott pouts out in a sing-song voice which puts my teeth on edge "but... I don't know what his phone number is. _**He**_ always _**calls**_ me."  
  
Derek makes a constipated face and makes each word a sentence. "Check. The. Memory. On. Your. Phone."  
  
You can tell he really wants to slap the boy and toss him off the porch, but he's trying to be civil. Cavemen are rarely polite, so Scott had better wise up. Real fast!

I really want to see Derek slam the brat through the floor. That's the only thing I miss about the other line. Derek kicked Scott's ass several times, just because he could.

  
Scott shrugs and says "I ran out of space and cleared the memory." It doesn't sound like he's not going to be smart about this or anything else.  
  
Derek growls as he says "Look, Zoolander. Hospitals restrict having cell phones on you. You can't reach him right now unless it's a life or death emergency and you call the main number and happen to know what extension to call. _ **Is**_ someone going to _**die**_ , besides _**you**_ , if you don't leave?"

  
  
Scott pales, takes a step back, and shakes his head hurriedly.  
  
Derek glares and takes a menacing step forward, causing Scott to step back even further. "You're going to have to wait until tomorrow. The sheriff is about to pick me up to go grocery shopping, so you _**can't**_ stay! I'm going to have to ask you to leave. _**Now!**_ "

  
Derek maneuvers him out the door, closes it, and locks it.

Scott doesn't have a key, so Derek breathes a sigh of relief. That puppy really annoys him ... and me.

Stiles was always the one keeping that idiot alive.  
   
I come down and ask "how can someone's best friend not know their phone number? His number hasn't changed in over four years."  
  
Derek shakes his head in disbelief and says "best friends should have your number memorized. That's part of being a good friend. Stiles deserves better than that idiot. You weren't kidding about him being a terrible friend to Stiles."  
  
I say "Oh, that's the problem. Johnny Bravo there is not a good friend."

  
  
I growl and say "the brat just now realized that he dumped Stiles for his girlfriend and quit lacrosse, but only after you spelled it out for him. Stiles quit the team over a week ago. They practice every _**single**_ day, but Sunday. Only an idiot wouldn't notice that Stiles hasn't been there by now."  
  
Derek says "maybe he has his head too far up Allison Argent's skirt to notice anything else. Unfortunately, I know how that is, and I wish to God that I didn't. I wish I hadn't tried to keep it secret and realized there's a problem if they don't want anyone to know you're with them." He sighs in disgust with himself.  
  
I pat his shoulder in understanding. "You're not the first guy to fall for a pretty face, and you were still on the rebound from the last girl's death."  
  
Our conversation is cut short when John pulls up in his cruiser. Derek runs out and gets in the car.

I hear John asks why Derek's angry, so he tells him _**all**_ about Scott's visit.

I see the angry cloud descend over John's face as they drive away.


	30. Scott's Like a Bad Penny

**Monday**   
**17 January 2011**

  
  
**ABOUT 9:30 pm**   
Stiles finished his homework and is cleaning up when Scott comes by the house. Again! 

Stiles looks up, makes a sour face and says "Crap! What does _**he**_ want? I _**don't**_ want to hear him going on, non-stop, about Allison right now."   
  
Derek doesn't like the way Scott treats Stiles. 

I don't think either of us has a use for the narcissistic boy. I sigh in annoyance and go upstairs as Derek answers the door.  
  
He escorts Scott into the living room where Stiles is relaxing with his feet up in his recliner. "Hey, Scott! What's up? It's a little late to be dropping by, isn't it?" He pointedly looks at the clock on the wall.  
  
Scott says excitedly "I made the first line! I looked around so you could congratulate me, but you weren't there."   
  
The brat actually pouts. That entire statement was narcissistic as hell.  
  
He continues without noticing the grimace and annoyance brimming from Stiles. "Allison was there, and _**she**_ was happy for me, but _**you**_ weren't there. **Where** were you?" He whines.    
  
Stiles makes a face and sighs in dejection.

  
  
Scott continues without noticing that he didn't get any response. "After talking to that caveman over there, I talked to Coach. Coach says you quit nearly two weeks ago."  
  
Stiles frowns in annoyance and says "Yeah, I did. I only joined because of you. I _**hate**_ lacrosse! That _ **is**_ the correct word. Hate! _**Not**_ dislike, but hate! As in I despise the sport. When you quit being my friend, I left the team. Derek informed me that he's already told you I quit the team and that I have a job. Why are you still acting like my entire life revolves around you?"  
  
Scott dazedly says "I didn't quit being your friend. You left me."  
  
Stiles grimaces and says "When you dumped me for your girlfriend and didn't notice if I was there or not, I left then and only then. I'm not going to be anyone's third wheel. You haven't noticed anything about me in a long time, Scott. If it's not about you, it's not important enough to bother you."   
  
Even Scott realizes that Stiles has had enough of his bullshit. He stammers "I ... uh?"  
  
Stiles continues "I have a job. A job that I love. It'll help me follow my career choice. Since the only reason you came by, was so I can tell you 'great job.' Great job on making the cut, buddy. Now! If you'll excuse? I'm tired, and I'm going to bed now."   
  
He slowly lumbers to his feet, and we can smell how tired and exhausted he is. "If you knew my number, you could've called me. I know, not important enough for you to bother learning it, even though I've had it for five years now. If the only reason you came here was to try and guilt trip me for not being at practice because your girlfriend was, there's the door. Derek, can you show him out."  
  
Derek steps forward, and Scott holds his hand up. _**"W** **hoa**_ there Conan!"  
  
Derek scoffs "Conan? Really? That's the best you've got?"  
  
Scott asks Stiles "how could I possibly remember your number?"  
  
Stiles stops on the stairs and looks over his shoulder. "Your cell phone number is 555-1978, your house landline is 555-3467, and your mom's cell is 555-7492. Your full name is Scott Bartholomew McCall, and your birthday is February 24th, and you'll be 17. You have no clue what my name is, my birthday or anything personal about me."  
  
He turns back and valiantly hold his temper as he angrily nearly shouts "don't you dare even try to guilt trip me because you're not going to win. I even know you're mom's full name, including her maiden name, and her birthday! Derek? What's my cell number?"  
  
Derek glares daggers at Scott and says "555-3216."  
  
Scott looks at Derek in shock. "Um, your first name isn't Stiles?"  
  
Derek glares and knits his brows together in anger. "his name is Polish, and Stiles is his nickname. Stiles is my friend, and he's important to me. I take an interest in my friends. You need to leave now. Stiles is tired. You can talk to him at school tomorrow."  
  
The sheriff walks in and sees Derek in bodyguard mode and asks "what's going on?" 

Derek says "I told Scott that Stiles is my friend and I take an interest in my friends. I recited Stiles phone number by heart since Scott didn't know it. I also informed him Stiles is tired and it's late. He needs to leave now so Stiles can go to sleep. Scott can see Stiles tomorrow. The self-centered brat doesn't have a clue about Stiles real name or anything personal about him even thou Stiles knows everything about him and his mom."  
  
The sheriff says "I have to agree with Derek. It's late, and Stiles is tired. You can see him tomorrow. Derek, can you escort Scott out please?"  
  
Derek smiles evilly and says "no problem Sheriff." 

Scott looks offended when Derek roughly clasps his hand on his shoulder and says "time to go, Gaston."  
  
  
  
Scott sputters on his way out the door.  
  
Stiles hugs his dad and goes upstairs to bed. We hear him fall asleep almost immediately. I ask "Derek? What time did he leave this morning? That's too tired to be from working a few hours in the hospital."  
  
Derek says "I got up at 5 am and he was already gone."

  
  
John says "when he was explaining his stocking job he said school started at 8. Where was he?"  
  
I say "Melissa told me he painted on Saturday and Monday. He's working at the hospital now, so maybe he's moved to painting in the mornings instead of the evenings?"

I think for a minute. "That wouldn't explain Stiles' exhaustion. That even takes into consideration that we wolves have higher stamina than humans. Maybe he was using a lot of magic today?"  
  
Derek says, "I'll sleep on the couch so I can listen for him, and we can ask him in the morning."  
  
I start dialing Melissa and say "that's a good idea, but I'm going to ask Melissa a few questions, on speaker phone."  
  
Melissa answers the phone and says "yes? Can I help you?"  
  
I say "Scott came over to demand of Stiles why he wasn't at practice today after the coach told him Stiles quit nearly two weeks ago." 

I look at John and Derek as I continue. "Stiles has been feeling abandoned and said as much. What I want to ask you about is, Stiles left the house before Derek woke up at 5 am."  
  
She says "are you sure? He left before sun up?"

  
  
Derek says "yes. I'm sure, and he came home after 9 pm. He did his homework and went to bed. He was asleep instantly."  
  
I ask "I want to know if using magic will tire Stiles out like that?"  
  
Melissa says "He didn't get home until after 9? He left work at 5 pm. He did everything he was supposed to do and left early. He was tired and said he didn't feel well. If he's that tired, he's using a _**lot**_ of magic."  
  
John asks "want to come over in the morning for breakfast so we can find out what he's doing? From all of the things Peter told me, Stiles was doing a lot of dangerous things in the other timeline to keep me out of the supernatural and to protect me. I want to know what he's doing."  
  
She says "of course. I'll be over at 5:30 am. Don't let Stiles leave until I get there."  
  
I say "of course."

We hang up, and then I go up to stretch out in Derek's bed. I'm taking advantage of this.


	31. Stiles is Caught Red-handed

**TUESDAY**   
**18 January 2011**

  
Stiles gets up at 3:30 am and heads down to grab an orange on the way out the door, but stops on the stairs when he sees Derek sitting on the couch, watching him.

  
  
Derk pulls on the pack bonds to let the rest of us know that Stiles is on the stairs.   
  
I walk down the hall and am quickly joined by John as he buttons up his shirt.

I cross my arms and huff in annoyance. "Stiles? It's a little early to be leaving for school. Isn't it?"  
  
He nervously looks around as he asks "what's going on?"

That was such an obvious dodge and attempted subject change.  
  
John and I herd Stiles down the stairs as Derek leads the way into the kitchen.

Derek sets a pan on the stove as he makes some simple scrambled eggs, toast, and gourmet coffee.

I  put my hand on Stiles' shoulder and direct him to sit at the kitchen table.  
  
John sits down next to him and says "I think we should be asking you that. What's going on, son? What are you up to?"  
  
Stiles sighs heavily and leans back in his chair, looking at us guiltily.

  
As Derek finishes the eggs, Melissa walks in the front door. "Stiles? What are you up to, I know you, and you're working on something? How much magic did you use yesterday?"  
  
Stiles asks "that's what this is about? Okay, I may have used _**a lot**_ of magic yesterday. That's not a crime."

Melissa clinches her jaw. "Stiles."

He sighs and gives up the fight. "You want to know why?" He looks down and fidgets with an imaginary spot on the table.   
  
John says "you have a history of doing things on your own instead of letting people help you, back you up, or even support you. I wasn't aware of it befure, but I am now. Let us help you and protect you. You don't have to do anything alone anymore."  
  
Melissa adds "I do need to how you were using a lot of magic to make you as tired as they hinted. The fact you have yesterday morning and afternoon unaccounted is troubling, baby. We need to know what you're doing. I don't want another incident like Los Angeles a few years ago."  
  
Stiles grimaces and nods.

  
  
He leans back and runs his hand through his hair. "No one's going to get mad at me?"  
  
We all shake our heads.  
  
He sighs in relief and looks down at his folded hands on the table. "I ... um ... noticed Peter left out a few facts here and there. I was working on tracking down a few things. A couple of facts just didn't add up."  
  
I look at him and ask "like what, Little One?"  
  
He says "Derek said there were 12 people in the fire. The fire report showed there were only eight bodies. Derek makes nine, Laura's ten, and Peter's eleven. That left one person unaccounted. I was trying to find out the who, what, where and when. I remembered you asked for the file on Cora. Cora Hale. Her body wasn't listed among the dead during the fire."  
  
Derek looks at me, and I say "there is another Hale out there."

  
  
My heart jumps into my throat that he found that so easily. I nod. "I was going to try and get to her before the Alpha Pack come looking for us. What did you find? Only you would make that connection." I smile fondly at my little Sherlock Holmes as I ruffle his hair.  
  
Melissa says "I'm going to guess that you were so tired yesterday because you were scrying. You better not have been looking in the Chronos stream."  
  
He looks guiltily at Melissa and says "I _**was**_ scrying. Not with the chronus, but just as bad. I was scrying with Blackwater."  
  
She clenches her jaw in irritation. It doesn't smell like anger. "Stiles! That's very dangerous! You could have asked for help!"  
  
John asks "You two need to let me know what's normal and what's dangerous for witches."

  
  
Melissa says "witches normally use a crystal or a mirror to find people or things. Blackwater is challenging and dangerous. You're not looking in the light for things. You're looking in darkness. Likes caves, insanity, or even things cloaked with magic. It's dangerous because of how focused you have to be to do it. A witch can easily drain themselves into unconsciousness and even death by using all of their magic and life force since our magic ties to our life and soul."  
  
John frowns. "oh. Good to know."  
  
I swallow and take a deep breath. "Stiles? What did you find?"  
  
Stiles nervously fidgets and says "during the Hale Fire, Cora was kissing a human guy."   
  
Derek makes a fish face and looks shocked.  
  
Stiles continues with "she felt the deaths of her pack, and she felt guilty that she was out, underage, with a human guy. She ran. She's been living in the Yosemite National Forest. Alone and in the woods. She's not feral, but she's not all there, either. She's living like an animal, in a cave, near Sonora Pass. She's going to get hit by a car in the next month or so, and the campers will get her to an animal clinic. The blind Alpha and the female Alpha with the foot claws will kidnap her from there."

  
  
I say "Kali. I thought they grabbed her from here, later this summer. I didn't know he had her that long. No wonder she was always angry and full of self-loathing."  
  
John asks "I take it that Blackwater also has something to do with time?"  
  
Derek asks "Is that how you know she was with a guy, and she's going to get hit by a car?"  
  
Melissa says "scrying uses magic to see the past or the future without using the timestream. It locks into a traumatic event and you can move either forward or backwards from there."

Stiles says "it's like watching a move, but more intense."

Melissa adds "a part of you is actually there, in that moment of time. Blackwater not only sees something from the third person but the first person, so we have a fuller understanding of the events we're observing. Stiles empathy means he feels whatever she does when he looks through her eyes. If I did it, I would see her thoughts."

Derek says "so your abilites allow you to gather more information about what's happening than what we would see in a movie?"

Stiles nods sheepishly.  
  
I say "that's how you know she felt guilty." He nods.  
  
John says "Empathy? You don't have to be near them to feel what they feel?"  
  
Stiles says "yeah dad. If I'm scrying and focusing on someone, I can feel their emotions as well. Not always fun."  
  
He scrunches down in his chair. "Kate is a sadistic, psychotic, megalomaniac that has an insane single-minded focus to please Gerard. It's almost like she's been brainwashed."   
  
He shivers in disgust before adding "I thought I was going to be sick and desperately went out of my way to feel anything and everything not like her to get that vile feeling off of me. I went to the pound and sat in the room with the puppies for nearly three hours."  
  
I say "that explains why in the other timeline you constantly told me Derek was an innocent victim like the rest of us, only he was emotionally and physically raped."  
  
Derek asks "that's why you said that guy in the club felt off when Danny was looking for possible dates. You feel their emotions and know somethings wrong with them."  
  
She says "I'm the telepath. Danny has psychometry."  
  
John asks "what's that?"  
  
Stiles says "when he touches something he can feel the last person that touched it and how they felt or thought when they touched it last. Every witch has a passive ability that we use to hide what we are, and it doesn't require magic."  
  
Melissa says "Telepaths and empaths can't read each other. Stiles has learned to hide his thoughts and emotions behind a wall of emotional energy, like white noise. We haven't been able to pick up anything Stiles doesn't want us to sense since before Deaton poisoned his mom."  
  
I say "that explains why I can never smell how he feels. I have to go by physical cues and his tells."  
  
Derek asks "if you know how Cora survived and where she is, why were you trying to sneak out at 3:30 am?"  
  
I look at him intently and ask "what _**were**_ you planning on doing this morning?"


	32. Cora

**TUESDAY**   
**18 January 2011**

  
I look at Stiles intently and ask "what were you planning on doing this morning?"  
  
He sighs heavily and says "I don't know exactly where she is. I have it down to a three-mile radius. That's still three miles. All I know for sure is the hospital. I'm not even positive when she gets hit by the car. It could be next month or the month after. I was going to scry again and get everything pigeonholed."  
  
John says "we're not witches, but can we help you scry for her?"  
  
Stiles looks nervous. "Yeah, you can."  
  
Derek asks "why are you nervous?"  
  
I ask "is it because if we help you scry, we pick up what you do? We see what you get from people or how much you feel from other people or is it that you're afraid we'll feel what you do and you always hide that?"  
  
He says "both, all of that."  
  
I one-arm hug him and kiss his forehead. "We're the same pack now. We work together. We should trust each other with everything."  
  
Stiles says "I do trust you all with everything. It's just ..." He sighs and looks down nervously "... I'm a little more powerful of an empath than I let on. I try not to pick up on people, and I actively work on not tuning in on people, but I still get something from them."  
  
Melissa kisses his forehead and says "it's okay Stiles. We figured that out a long time ago. We need to work together on this." She sets a glass bowl of black water in the middle of the table. She says "everyone holds hands. Stiles will do the seeking, and we will help ground and provide extra focus and power."  
  
  
  
Melissa's eyes go green, and Stiles go white.  
  
  
  
In a few seconds, we feel intense cold and hunger. We see through Cora's eyes. That's how she feels, and she's hunting a deer.   
  
  
  
He draws out of her, to where we seem to be standing next to her. Now we can feel the deer's desire to find food for its mate and baby.   
  
Cora chases it, and it runs away. It's using strategy, and we feel that it's trying to draw her away from its family. It startles a family of snow rabbits, and they bound towards Cora to get away from the deer.  
  
Cora finds the rabbits an easier prey than the running deer, so she grabs two of the rabbits and snaps their spines. She tears into them in ravenous hunger. We feel how hungry and alone Cora is. She hasn't eaten in nearly a week.   
  
  
  
We see the road nearby and follow her to her cave. We look where it is. Derek and I are pretty sure we can find it. She feels a ghost of a pack sensation from Beacon Hills. Cora's full of confusion as to whether anyone survived. She'll wait until the weather is warmer than it is now, and go back to see who survived.  
  
  
  
Melissa and Stiles let go of the connection.    
  
Derek says "I can find her. I can locate that cave. I'll get her and bring her here, where we can feed her and take care of her. It feels like she hasn't eaten in a week."  
  
I look at Stiles in awe. "You sense everything that everyone feels around you, almost like you feel it yourself."  
  
He nods and says "the white noise isn't to keep everyone out, it's to keep me out of them."  
  
Melissa says "oh, honey. I didn't realize you were that strong. It must be hard for you." She hugs him.  
  
John says "it looks suspicious if Derek suddenly disappears right now. It's safer if Peter goes. No one knows he's here anyway. They assume that Ian is him."  
  
I say "I agree. I'll get some supplies and leave now to get Cora. I'll get her some clothes and a good meal on the way back. I should be back by tomorrow night."  
  
Stiles quietly and sadly says "tomorrow is the full moon."  
  
I say "I'll be back before then, Little One."  
  
Derek says "You're my pack brother. I'm with you, and I'll protect you. Your control's amazing, and you shouldn't have any problems."  
  
Stiles smiles and shyly looks at John. "I have an idea where Derek and Cora can stay. Old Man Crumple, David Crumple. He lives across the street, and he's been looking for someone to rent his house for nearly a year."   
  
He fidgets with his glass of juice as he nervously says "he had an affair with Talia. He suspects Derek is his because he has the same loden green eyes that Mr. Crumple does and all the other Hales have Brown eyes except Peter. He'd be tickled pink to rent his house to them."  
  
John looks at him suspiciously. "Is that something you picked up on when he saw Derek staying here?"  
  
Stiles blushes and ducks his head.  
  
I say "It's okay. We've always known Derek's illegitimate, but we never had a clue who his father was. Talia never said anything. We knew it was a human though because Derek's control isn't as iron clad as a wolf would be if both parents are wolves."  
  
  
  
Derek says "wait? What! Mom had an affair with a human and that's why dad was standoffish with me? Because I'm half human? What do you mean we've always known? I never knew!"  
  
Stiles hunches up guiltily and looks down guiltily as he says "I'm sorry. I didn't know you didn't know. I hate being me." It seems like he's near tears.  
  
  
  
Melissa shushes him as she gives him a bear hug and runs her fingers through his hair, calming him.   
  
I say "it's okay Stiles. You just answered a Hale mystery. It could help us get that house for rent. I'm not above asking him and hoping for the best. It's close by, with enough room for all of us. That looks like a three bedroom house."  
  
Melissa says "three with a study or office."  
  
Derek nuzzles him briefly and says "I'm not upset or angry. You can smell that, if not feel it. I didn't know. No one ever told me I'm a half-breed. It does explain why they treated me the way they did. Well, everyone but Peter. I'm glad that I know. Now I know that I didn't do anything to deserve the way they treated me. It's okay."  
  
Stiles smiles at him in relief and wraps his arms over Derek's strong arms embracing him.   
  
John nods thoughtfully. "Derek and I will go over there tomorrow and talk with him about it."  
  
  
  
I pack a couple of sandwiches in a backpack with a hairbrush, a damp rag in a ziplock bag, and an old shirt and jeans from Melissa. Within an hour I'm on my way to collect Cora in the Sonora Pass in Sierra, Nevada.   
  
Outside of town, I take my clothes off, roll them up, and put them in the backpack. I loosen the straps to the loosest settings and then shift to Alpha. The back pack's now a little tight, but it works.   
  
I look up at the sky and get my bearings. I then run cross-country to find my niece.  
  
  



	33. Collecting Cora

**TUESDAY**   
**18 January 2011**

It takes me three hours to lope along to New Melones Lake and another hour to find Cora's scent.

 

I track her to where we saw her kill the rabbits. I find the little bunny remains stripped to the bone. She even ate some of the bones. She's half starved.

 

I follow her tracks and her scent to the cave.

 

I look around the area and realize there's only one entrance.  That could make this either far easier or far more dangerous depending on how aware she is and if she recognizes me.

 

I use my Alpha senses to listen for her heartbeat to discover if she's inside or not. I hear her heart and breathing deep inside. I scout around and figure out that she's in the far corner of the cave, shivering. I hear her teeth chattering.

 

I estimate that she's about 75 feet from the cave entrance. If I waltz in, she's going to attack me. I need to take her unaware, so she doesn't have time to act or react to my intrusion into her territory.

 

I take a chance, and rush into the cave, bounding over to where she's huddled. I don't want her to be able to attack me or to run away, so I quickly pin her down.

 

When she starts to panic, I lick her face and whimper happily to let her know that I'm not a threat. I'm friendly and not an enemy.

 

She freezes in fear as she cautiously looks at me in the semi-darkness. 

 

I see that she's trying to remember me. I take pity on the poor girl and shift back to human. I softly croon say her name. "Cora."

 

 

I keep my eyes red, indicating my Alpha status.

She covers her face and tries to hide her face from me. I smell fear and anguish.

 

I coo calmingly. "Cora? Cora, baby? It's me, Uncle Peter. I don't want to hurt you. I came to find you and protect you. I want to bring you into our pack, our family. The Hale pack needs you. Come home with me. Let us take care of you."

 

She bursts into tears and clutches my shoulder as she sobs uncontrollably

.

I stroke her hair as she cries. After about thirty to forty minutes of sobbing, she finally stops crying. "I thought I was alone. I thought everyone died in the fire."

 

I shush her. "I was in a coma for the last six years. We need to get back to Beacon Hills, but you aren't in any condition to make the trip right now. We need to get you fed, warm, and cleaned up."

 

I help her to her feet and reach into the bag at my waist and pull out the clothes.

 

 I begin getting dressed as I look her over critically to asses how bad off she is before saying "the Argents have returned to finish us off, but we have allies helping us throwing light on them so the police can see their crimes. My mate is a powerful witch, and his father is the Sheriff of Beacon Hills."

 

She looks surprised. "Mate? You found your mate?"

 

I nod as I pull out the shabbier clothes I got for her and tell her all about my mate as she hesitantly dresses. I think it has been some time since she's worn clothes or lived as a human.

 

I hide my smile as she rankles her nose over Melissa's scent in the clothes.

 

She nods. "You're my Alpha now? I'll do what you ask of me. I don't like being alone here. I hate being cold and hungry all the time. I'm not a very good hunter."

 

I make a fire to warm her and give her small pieces of the sandwich. I have to give her small pieces, so she doesn't make herself sick gulping it down. I talk to her soothingly as she eats the sandwiches.

 

By the time she finishes eats and warms up by the fire, her eyes show humanity glimmering in them again. She's been feral for a long time. I'm surprised she wasn't even more savage than she is after everything that happened to her of late.

 

I brush her hair and use the damp rag to wipe her face and hands a little. I then lead her to the closest hotel and rent a room for the day.

 

She takes a long hot shower while I order room service. By the time it arrives, she's cozily bundled up in a chair as I explain the Argents and the Hale Fire.

 

I finish my explanation by telling her that I'm bringing her to Derek in Beacon Hills. I'm the new Hale Alpha since Laura's death. I took the Alpha power from her.

 

Cora is understandably upset to discover that our family is gone because Laura and Kate wanted to kill both families so they could be together because they were lovers. 

 

She's disgusted to find out that Laura kept Derek alive as a scapegoat and sacrificial lamb to murder as a peace offering to the Argents so she could be with Kate with their blessings.

 

It also makes her angry that Laura left me as an Omega and alone so that I couldn't heal.

 

She doesn't know how she got here or how long ago she arrived. She doesn't even really know where she is.

 

Cora tells me that when she felt the others die and saw the fire, she ran, blaming herself because of the human boy she was kissing.

 

She eats her hot meal and gets dressed in the nicer clean clothes. Now that she understands a little more about Melissa and Stiles, the smell of Melissa on the clothes comforts her.

 

I then take her to the salon and get her hair done. We then buy some warmer clothes for her. I can still smell her guilty feelings, but she's feeling grateful and latching on to our pack bond with a fierceness I've never seen from here before. She won't let our bond fade away.

 

By the time we finish our small shopping trip, it's nearly sunset. We tighten our backpacks, shift to Beta, and then start loping our way home.

 

We make the trip in four hours and head straight to Stiles' house. 

 

I smell strangers inside, so we move around to the back door where Stiles meets us at the door and lets us in.

 

  
I immediately scoop him up into a giant bear hug and nuzzle his neck. When I'm sure he's okay, I let him go.

 

Stiles introduces Melissa to Cora, and she immediately starts mothering her. She gets us both a mug of hot chocolate and makes us take our wet things off.

 

Stiles says "Mr. Crumple admitted to having an affair with Talia. I never realized how much Derek looks like him until they were sitting next to each other. He's decided that Derek lost almost all of his family and he never had a chance to know him, so he's acknowledging that Derek is his and wants to be a family with him. They're talking about Talia and his time with her now."

 

 

Cora says "wait! That's who his human father is? We always wondered who it was?"

 

Stiles says "being a half-breed isn't a bad thing. I'm a half-breed. I'm half-human and half-witch, and I'm proud of both sides of my DNA."

 

Melissa says "I'm a full witch and Stiles can do shit I can't. There's something to be said about half-breeds. They exist because two races loved each other enough to look past race and color."

 

Stiles leads us out into the living room just in time to see Mr. Crumple walking out the door as Derek waves goodbye to him, promising to talk more tomorrow. 

 

Stiles grabs Cora's mug as she flings herself into her brother's arms. She cries "I thought you were dead! I thought you burned in the fire with the others! It's my fault! I was out with a human guy and didn't sense the bitch approaching the house. I'm sorry."

 

Derek shushes her. "All this time I thought it was my fault because the hunter that killed our family, Kate Argent, seduced me. She drugged me and took my clothes so she could sneak into our house and set the fire."

 

John says "it wasn't the fault of any Hale. It was Kate Argent's fault. Your family wasn't the first one she torched." 

 

He looks intently at Stiles and says "sorry son. I searched your computer. I found out just how much you've done to protect me. Peter says, in his time, you had a file on Deaton, Gerard Argent, and the Hale Arson. I needed to see what I'm missing so I can plan accordingly. I know you want to protect me, son, but give me a chance to protect you as well."

 

 


	34. John Investigates Stiles

**TUESDAY**  
 **18 January 2011**  
  
John investigated Stiles' computer while he's at school to see what Stiles knows about the Argents and the fires. He doesn't like being kept in the dark and from everything I've told him about my time, he suspects Stiles is still keeping him in the dark about some things.   
  
John's smart enough to know that he's _**not very knowledgeable**_ about computers and he needs _**someone he can trust**_ to help him search without reporting either Stiles, himself or what he finds, _**without**_ assisting him in proving things first.   
  
Tara! Stiles trained her on the computers at the station. She helps Stiles with homework sometimes. Perfect.  
  


  
After hugging my mate, he gives us an update about the identity of Derek's father. Then John drops the bombshell.    
  
John confronts Stiles about the knowledge gaps and what he found on his computer.  
  
Stiles rakes his hand through his hair and says "You _**did**_ what? I haven't _**verified**_ all of that, dad! Some of that is things I _**suspect**_ of being a pattern but _**don't have proof**_. Why?! _**When**_ did you search my computer? _**What**_ files did you find?" He stops his pacing and looks at dad with his head to the side with his cute 'I"m going to figure this out face.' "You don't know much about computers. Who did you get to go through my computer?"  
  
John says "Tara. I trust her and she is very fond of you. You trained her on computers at the station."  
  
He snorts and then nervously twists his hands and fidgets as he looks away. A hard wall goes up that blocks all emotions, even the scent of them. "I take it you found _**everything** _ I have?"  
  
  
  
I ask "how can you shield not only your emotions but the smell of them? That shouldn't be possible."  
  
Stile huffs with a half smile. "I'm a little further along than most empaths. It's a nervous response. I didn't mean to do that. Sorry." He drops the wall. His emotions are still muted, but we can smell them now.  
  
John says "while you were at work, I read everything you had on everything. I know you won't say anything until you have concrete evidence. I needed to see what you had. I don't like that everyone knows stuff, except me."   
  
John rocks back on his heels as he says "I got Tara to help me and verify that we found everything you had on your hard drive and the cloud. She found a bunch of partial files of surveillance collected from ATM's, traffic cams, security cameras from gas stations. We found files of police reports of missing persons matched up with reports of unidentified bodies found several cities away from where the abduction happened, which you'd matched to surveillance of the abductions or possible abductions. I'm amazed that you got your hands on all of that."  
  
Stiles smells of shock, surprise and is that _**elation?**_ He _**wanted**_ someone to see what he had and help him, but was _**afraid**_ to ask? He looks at me and understands that I'm trying to read him, and he quickly suppresses his attempt to hide his emotions and his chemo scents.  
  
John calmly states "I started most of my deputies verifying everything you found. You already identified sixteen werewolf families that she burned and four witch clans that they massacred, worldwide. Interpol was interested in your file. You positively identified over ten werewolf packs that they attacked and killed for no reason. You didn't tell me that bastard butchered Danny's father and older brother because they were werewolves!"  
  
Stiles blushes and looks down. "Danny doesn't talk about that very much. That's one of the reasons I started researching Gerard, years ago. I wanted to nail Gerard for him. I wanted to get a little bit of justice, so his family could rest in peace."   
  
He looks up at John. "It's the least I can do for my best friend. If it weren't for the damned rules of the coven, we could do stuff together in the human world, but the elders are too set on our race hiding who and what we are." With great hatred and anger, he bites out "we've run across every bloody continent and all the way to the last damned ocean! We're running out of places to run. We're being forced into oblivion and not doing anything to stop it. I'm tired of hiding what I am and who my friends and family are!"  
  
Melissa says "they think their rules keep us safe."  
  
Derek asks "so witches are a different species? Like werewolves are?"  
  
Melissa and Stiles nod. They both shine their eyes. Stiles is white, and hers are green.  
  
John says "there was a phrase next to Lydia's name. Two actually in different languages." He pulls out his notebook, opens it and points to the phrases. Krzyczaca kobieta.  
  
Melissa says "that's Polish for screaming woman or banshee."  
  
He then points to another phrase. Kratíste tous fílous sas kontá kai tous echthroús sas Pio kontá.  
  
I say "that's Greek for 'keep your friends close and your enemies closer.'"   
  
I ask "does that mean you see her as an enemy?"  
  
Stiles looks at Melissa, silently asking permission. She seems unsure, but she's the one that finally answers. "The witchfinders use banshees for hunting witches. Our coven discovered, about a thousand years ago, that when an empath and a telepath join together for the power of three, it creates a cloaking shield for our entire coven that hides us from them. We appear to be human to all non-humans. At least, until we decide to reveal what we are."  
  
Stiles says "my mother identified Lydia's grandmother and we've kept our shields up ever since. I was saying that I was keeping a close eye on her and ... adjusting her focus and emotions so that she doesn't detect what we are."  
  
Cora says "hold up. You can affect how people feel about you, not just instill terror?"  
  
Melissa says "hyper-empaths can affect how you feel, but it's a temporary thing ... they use it as a weapon or a shield. They can't make you like someone or hate someone permanently. If you threaten them, they can make you feel fear, so we have time to run. He's preventing her from feeling wary of us."  
  
Stiles says "empaths have used it as a form ... of persuasion ... to force someone to tell us what we need to know."  
  
Melissa looks at him a little oddly.   
  
I don't think she knew that he might have persuaded or tortured someone to tell him what he needed to know, with that ability.   
  
I look at John and change the subject "so does that mean that Mr. Crumple rented us the house?"  
  
John stands up straighter and nods. "Stiles was right. He couldn't wait to get Derek in that house. He gave him the option of rent to own with a steep family discount."  
  
Derek says "I took the option as well as accepted his offer as a father figure since _**he is**_ my father. In fifteen years, that house will be mine. The lawyers are finalizing the papers now. It should be filed and notarized by next Tuesday, at the latest."  
  
Peter smiles at him "how do you like having a father that wants you around and wants to spend time with you?"  
  
Derek smiles. "It's amazing. It's unlike anything I've ever felt before."  
  
  
  
Stiles says "I'm glad you get to experience family bonding. There's nothing like having a close bond with your dad."  
  
  
  
Derek looks at Cora and me. He reaches in his pocket and pulls out a set of keys. "Let's go across the street and pick out the rooms we want. He said they're all set up as guest rooms for showing the house. We can sleep there tonight, and I can go shopping tomorrow with Cora."  
  
I nod. "I want a hot shower and a real bed of my own to sleep in for a change. Hospital beds aren't that comfortable and nothing against you Derek, but you're not the one I want to be sharing a bed with, until Stiles is old enough, I want a bed of my own."  
  
Everyone laughs as Cora and I follow Derek across the street, after making plans for breakfast with John, Stiles, and Melissa.   
  



End file.
